January...must be time for Physical Therapy again! (long)
I am frustrated...for the THIRD January in a row I have to go into PT, though it won't be for so long this time. Different reasons each time.
I've complained...errrr...mentioned here before an apparently lack of ability to strengthen my left arm. I worked with a great trainer at my last gym for 3 years, and am currently working with another fantastic (and very different) coach/trainer at my current gym. My entire body has responded well to this...outside of that left arm. It is no stronger than it was 3.5 years ago, perhaps a little better but not significantly.
I visited my doc today (an OD) to rule out a spinal misalignment being the root cause. We never got to my spine...after abut 3 minutes he became convinced that something different is the root cause. Apparently there is a HARD stop in that shoulder socket when he was manipulating it and he thinks I've a frozen shoulder. I hadn't realized it was so apparent, but he could tell a significant difference in my muscle development between the two sides, from the Traps to the Delts. I am unsure how a frozen shoulder would encourage muscles to not fire properly, but that is what he thinks. He is the bone doc, I am not.
X-ray today to rule out other things, an MRI is likely in my future. Headed for a few sessions with a PT to help him confirm the diagnosis and to decide if I need to head to an Ortho.
I've done some reading on this condition, and in some cases it does resolve automatically after a year or so...but it has been like this at least 3.5 years (probably longer) if he is correct. That arm has been broken several times over the years, so it is possible that it is related to some post-traumatic issue and I never noticed. I've always ignored pain, and if it ever did hurt it was so long ago that I've forgotten. Ok, so perhaps it does get my attention when I try to push it further than it wants to go... :o
I am trying not to panic, I can't really afford to deal with this...hopefully it will respond to conservative treatment. From my discussion with him however, all of the corrective exercises I've been doing for months to target that shoulder are exactly the same that a PT would use and they have had little to no effect.
All I've read appears to indicate that a frozen shoulder is painful - well, mine isn't (if his dx turns out to be correct). So, we will see what happens. I am following up as I need to do so and we will just see. Does anyone have any experience with a "frozen shoulder" ?
Physical Therapy Update :-)
I had the PT eval from my miracle guy, and he figured my shoulder out in about 15 minutes – and 15 minutes later he had my left arm totally extended – bicep touching my ear – with no pain or stress (outside of some tension in the scapula)! He thinks the shoulder will be completely resolved in about a month, perhaps 5 weeks. All he did was to do some rather painful poking around on my collar bone…
The problem isn't actually in the shoulder – the problem is related to an old broken collar bone in my teen years that wasn't rehabbed properly. Something about that old injury is preventing my left shoulder from really engaging properly. He did explain it and he is sending me an email with the pertinent information to forward to my trainer. His guidance is no over-head lifting at all for now until we strengthen my rotator cuffs. No problems with pushing/pulling, or lower body work – but no over-head work for a bit. The rotator cuff is weak - not because it is injured but because the shoulder isn't working properly due to this collar bone/shoulder joint issue.
The humerus moves properly in the shoulder, but very few of the muscles fire at all and are currently incapable of strengthening because of the old injury. Bill says this is actually a minor problem that is easily solved, but it would have never solved itself. He sees no reason why I won’t be able to finally start building upper body strength when we are done :cool: :D
