Physical Therapy and shoulder...

[Crankin]

Yup, my first rx for pt was for 12 sessions. After like 4 months, I was still there...
I just call and go when I want now. They must have passed that law here sometime in the past 5 years.

[Kiwi Stoker]

I too have rehabbed a shoulder, one that had a broken collarbone one year and then I broke the ball joint into 5 large and lots of small pieces and had a plate and 11 screws inserted a year later.

Some things I found out along the way-

Traditional physio often doesn't work- that is the stuff like walking your fingers up the wall, lifting the arm with a pulley. If your muscles are pretty much frozen or weak, it's going to take years to rehab. I dropped the traditional 1/2 hour physio who made me do exercises and then gave me a massage (and not very good one at that). for a specialist arm physio who worked with golfers to improve their swing. He was also into dry needling- oh the agony but he managed to re-program my muscles to work and respond. I would have 1 hour seassions with him and boy they worked. I didn't need to many sessions in the end.

Sometimes things will not fix themselves- in my case I managed to get my shoulder to lift my arm to shoulder height but couldn't raise it higher myself. My physio could lift my arm higher, but I couldn't. I ended up have an ultrasound on my shoulder (because the MRI wouldn't show anything with all the metal I had in there. BTW it was also much cheaper!) and it showed that the orginal surgeons hadn't done- repair a badly torn tendon. I don't blame them, they were too busy trying to save my shoulder joint and bone. But it meant I wasn't going to get the range of motion back no matter how much I did physio. So it required more surgery. The doctor was also able to check during that exactly how much motion I was going to get out of my poor mis-shapen joint. Yes it is permanently decreased but I now can reach up to put my clothes on, put things on a high shelf and pull the curtains.

I realise money is an issue and I was unemployed during this whole process. But I would suggest trying to make the most of what money you have. I would go and see a doctor to check out what you can realistically achieve. Ask if he can do an ultrasound if he thinks it's muscle/tendon related. Also I would look to see if you can find a specialist arm and shoulder physio (yes I know you have built a relationship) to get as much bang for your buck. And investigate other methods like accupuncture and dry needling.

Good luck and best wishes.

[Catrin]

Sounds like quite the journey Kiwi, and thanks for sharing your experiences. Glad to hear that you finally got relief! Bill thinks an MRI and a visit to an Ortho to determine how much improvement is realistic to expect would be a good idea. He doesn't think an ultrasound would show everything in question. I need to think about this, I have to pay a sizeable percentage for an MRI...