I’ve had issues with my right shoulder since 2017. I saw a PT person for the original injury. However, I now believe that she wasn’t the right PT person for this injury. She never put me through a bunch of tests to diagnose what was wrong with my shoulder. She did massage and soft-tissue work on it. She never gave me any exercises, even though I asked her about them regularly.
My shoulder was good enough that I left that first PT person after a few months. And I’ve gotten by with just the occasional massage. The last few months, though, that shoulder has really started to bother me again.
So I got a referral to a different PT. Met with her the first time this afternoon. She is a tiny woman, thin boned, perhaps ninety pounds soaking wet.
When she had me put my arms in very specific poses, and then told me to not allow her to move my arm, I figured, “No problem.”
And I was right for the most part. Maybe for 90% of the tests she did.
Then she had me move my right arm into another position. I didn’t fold like wet tissue paper, but I absolutely wasn’t able to hold my arm stiffly.
She also had me do some very specific movements with my arms. Turns out that while overall I have very good range of motion, in some of these movements, I have a very limited range of motion. For one test, my left arm had 85 degrees range of motion (which is good, though it should have been 90). My right arm? Perhaps 35 degrees.
Well, crap.
My eventual diagnosis?
Some of the muscles that make up my rotator cuff are weak. Not all of them, just two out of the four. She was very specific in pinpointing them.
This is why I haven’t been able to heal. Just massage hasn’t been enough to get my shoulder back to right. I suspect I’ve had some level of injury to this shoulder since 2017.
For the next six weeks, I’ll have PT twice a week. I also have exercises that I’m supposed to do twice a day.
Because of all the manipulation that I put my shoulder through today I hurt more than I have been. I’m sitting here with a cold pack on my shoulder. I’m hopeful, though, that I might finally be on the path to healing my shoulder pain.
So what are you hopeful about today? What’s been going right for you?