We have so many talented women here, some of which have a lot of medical knowledge at your disposal. I know what my doctor is going to ask me Friday and I want to have decided before then.

I don't know exactly what the shoulder x-rays showed, I will find that out Friday, but his assistant indicated that there was something in the position of my shoulder bones makes it clear that something mechanical is going on - whether tendinitis, a rotator cuff problem, or a frozen shoulder will need to be determined. For some things surgery wouldn't be considered, for other things that is possible. Whatever it is, it's been there for YEARS and is quite entrenched. The older I get the more difficult it will be to deal with and frankly I want to be one of those old women that people consider nuts because of all of the physical activities I enjoy. For that I've got to be able to move my arm and build strength in it.

Right now I am leaning toward holding off on an expensive CT scan until I've had a month of intentional physical therapy to see if the shoulder will respond at all. The cost of the PT will count against my deductible, so this approach will decrease the CT cost by at ~30%. Is a CT scan better than an MRI for shoulder issues? Are the PT approaches for shoulder issues really different between different problems so if I hold off on the scan can they make things worse by using the "wrong" treatment? Am I overthinking all of this? Shall I put pure 100% cacoa in my coffee with cream? Any comments would be appreciated as I consider the best approach.