Thursday, March 3, 2011

MORE SHOULDER WOES

I went to the doctor yesterday to talk to him about my right shoulder.  He has given me a referral to a shoulder specialist to get surgery.  My appointment is in four weeks.  During that time, my physical therapist wants me to hit the PT hard to see if we can solve the problem and make the surgery unnecessary.  I guess he thinks that there is a 50-50 chance that surgery will not be needed.  Fingers crossed...

My physical therapist is concerned that I have torn a tendon in my shoulder, which is causing it not to operate properly.  I am on my way to a frozen shoulder - I cannot put my arm behind my back at all, I cannot put my hand on my hip and I cannot lift my arm above my head.  Plus, I am having increasing pain - getting dressed and undressed by myself has become more and more of a challenge, and it's not even easy if I have help.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my! What is next? Can you see the doctor sooner? When I tore a tendon in my arm a couple of years ago, they had me do PT but I also had to wear a brace all the time, even sleeping. They said it took the pressure off of the joint. Anyway it helped, not that there still wasn't pain but I could function fairly well. It took months to heal but the brace made it easier.
    I'm concerned that the PT and just daily functioning is just irritating the tendon. You need more medical advice, I think.

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  2. It's so hard to know what to do. One doc says one thing, and another says the opposite. This doc does not want me to see a doctor sooner. He wants to give the PT a chance to work before going invasive. The therapist said the same thing. grrr

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  3. Hey Rebecca so sorry to hear about you shoulder. What exercises for PT have they suggested?

    Jim Kipp

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  4. Jim, they have me doing all sorts of passive range of motion and weight lifting, with hand weights and pulleys.

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