Shoulder Pain

[Don M.]

I blew a rotator cuff a few years ago, and the doctor gave me a cortisone shot, and a series of exercises to do. I continue to do some of the exercises, and they certainly help...especially in the Winter when I'm often stuck in the house.

 

[Jules]

I think PT did help me and would recommend it, but just to get you started, doing the exercises on your own once learned is better.

A good PT will strongly encourage you to wean yourself from dependence upon them as quickly as possible.

 

[Vida May]

I am in the same boat. Yes, physical therapists help, but they cost money and time. Get exercise bands and find the right exercises from a doctor or online. Also,try “BobandBrad” on YouTube. See

For me, it is helpful to watch a show while doing them. I need to start (resume) this like today!

I love those guys! I had their knee exercises bookmarked and I forgot about them. Thank you so much. I have bookmarked the shoulder exercises.

I was not aware of how bad my posture is until checking the direction of my thumbs when I am just standing. I need to work on my back muscles! I have to work at standing with good posture and tire quickly. My goodness, I didn't realize I have so much work to do, and I like that he said we don't need to do all the exercises on the same day. I was feeling overwhelmed by all the exercises.

Their explanations make me less afraid of my pain and very hopeful of correcting the problems. I am thinking I would be better off in the weight room than in the pool? I am not satisfied with the result of the months of pool exercises.

 

[Vida May]

Well Vida May, thanks to you I started up my rubber band stretches again today. Watched an old Gomer Pyle episode on YouTube which spanned the 30 minutes or so for my stretches.

Yes, and this is why we come to this forum. We need each other.

 

[Vida May]

I had osteoarthritis in both shoulders. It first manifested as a grinding noise when doing exercises at the gym. The exercises involved pulling against a resistance force. I was told not to keep doing those exercises.

Then for a long time I was OK until it began to hurt just doing normal things like reaching up to peg washing on the line. Eventually I was unable to raise my hands above my head and had great trouble washing and styling my hair.

That was when I went to see a surgeon who specialised in shoulder repairs and replacement. I was a candidate for full replacement of both shoulders. By this time my primary care doctor had me on some pretty heavy duty pain management via patches.

Both shoulders were replaced using the standard technique (there is a reverse procedure for more advanced cases) and now I am pain free with a very good range of movement. Recovery was easy with minimal physical therapy. I wore a sling for some weeks to make sure I didn't lift any heavy weights and damage the tissues before they were fully healed. I spaced the operations three months apart so that I could have one hand to use while the other one was out of action.

Could you drive after surgery? Right now exercising is helping, but I know there may be a day when I have to have surgery because the pain can be that bad and not go away and for sure it is arthritis. What really frightens me is being laid up too long. I have to drive as a Senior Companion. Being laid up for a week is doable but not for a month or more.

 

[JonSR77]

I love those guys! I had their knee exercises bookmarked and I forgot about them. Thank you so much. I have bookmarked the shoulder exercises.

I was not aware of how bad my posture is until checking the direction of my thumbs when I am just standing. I need to work on my back muscles! I have to work at standing with good posture and tire quickly. My goodness, I didn't realize I have so much work to do, and I like that he said we don't need to do all the exercises on the same day. I was feeling overwhelmed by all the exercises.

Their explanations make me less afraid of my pain and very hopeful of correcting the problems. I am thinking I would be better off in the weight room than in the pool? I am not satisfied with the result of the months of pool exercises.

I would go slow and steady and build.

The base line of muscular health is a good body of warm-up exercises. Stretching.

So, I would not jump into weights right away.

I would get into a good stretching program - like from Hatha Yoga or Tai-Chi and do that for a few months first.


Then start off with super light weights. 1 and 2 lb weights. And run your muscles through exercises with those.

And then slowly, slowly build up, just a bit to working with 3 and 5 lb weights through a variety of exercises.


And once you do that, go to your regular doctor with the exercise program that you want to do at the gym.

Make sure he approves not only the exercises, but the amount of weight and the reps.


And, when you get into doing the work with the weights, keep going with the daily stretching also. I don't know the details exactly. I am pretty sure you don't necessarily want to stretch and then go right into the weights. You might need to give a couple of hours between sessions. I think some of the weight lifters alternate days even? Don't remember exactly.

And be very careful in winter. Stay bundled up. Easy for a shoulder to get exposed to some cold weather and the muscles to just seize up.

Take care.

 

[Vida May]

Just remember, there is no "one solution fits all" to shoulder pain. There are various different conditions that can affect the shoulder and each may vary in treatment and management.

I was walking in a parking lot in 2015. I was run over by an SUV. Had rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. But when they found that, they found that I had other problems, chronic problems.

Please be cautious regarding physical therapy. There are extremely talented physical therapists. And there are also kids, just out of school, he really do not know what they are doing. Also, there are physical therapists who just treat their work like a job. They don't care, they don't have any real devotion to the work. And they can be a problem if that is who you get.

The best are physical therapists who have a very long history of working with professional sports teams. If you get one of those, you will be in good hands.


Folks can also try going to a sports medicine doctor, instead of a regular orthopedist. The sports medicine guys just treat far, far, far, far more injuries in their practice and they are just generally, more highly skilled than any old orthopedist.

I get chiropractic and acupuncture. Both help.

I also do stretches from Hatha Yoga. That helps.

I also learned deep muscular relaxation techniques from Feldenkrais and Alexander Technique.

I had no choice. I was bedridden for two years. I was doing stretching and other therapies up to 8 hours a day, until I figured out how to conquer a lot of my problems.

Whatever health care professional you use, I would ask them for stretches that you can do daily to help.

I would also ask if there are sleeping positions that better support and help the shoulder.

If you sleep in a bad position at night, you are basically doing "anti-healing" for 8 hours straight. That is a length of time that creates a force, hard to oppose. It can go to positioning work with pillows.

I use a special pillow and a special mattress.


Also, with shoulders...be very very very careful about exposing your shoulder to cold in winter and causing the muscles to seize up. Keep very well bundled up in winter.

Ask the doctor what weight limit your shoulder can handle. Some folks do all kinds of healing work...and then carry a 50 pound sack of mulch to the backyard...and ruin all the hard work.


best of luck folks...

Oh yeah, I avoid young people because I are college educated and know very well the limits of book learning! I studied gerontology and thought I knew it all when I agreed to care for my grandmother with a memory problem. Whoo was that a mistake! I quickly learned I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did.

I am fortunate that I live in a city where sports are a very big deal and we have internationally known sports injury specialists. I am confident if it comes to surgery, I will have the best care possible.

Your journey from being bedridden sounds like a good story. Do you want to tell it? It makes my challenges seem pretty small. I have a very bad reaction to pain and when I am made aware of greater challenges, I think, I need to try harder instead of giving up.

 

[Vida May]

I would go slow and steady and build.

The base line of muscular health is a good body of warm-up exercises. Stretching.

So, I would not jump into weights right away.

I would get into a good stretching program - like from Hatha Yoga or Tai-Chi and do that for a few months first.


Then start off with super light weights. 1 and 2 lb weights. And run your muscles through exercises with those.

And then slowly, slowly build up, just a bit to working with 3 and 5 lb weights through a variety of exercises.


And once you do that, go to your regular doctor with the exercise program that you want to do at the gym.

Make sure he approves not only the exercises, but the amount of weight and the reps.


And, when you get into doing the work with the weights, keep going with the daily stretching also. I don't know the details exactly. I am pretty sure you don't necessarily want to stretch and then go right into the weights. You might need to give a couple of hours between sessions. I think some of the weight lifters alternate days even? Don't remember exactly.

And be very careful in winter. Stay bundled up. Easy for a shoulder to get exposed to some cold weather and the muscles to just seize up.

Take care.

Okay, I know what you are saying is right, and I need to be reminded because I have a personality that does not think things through carefully. I don't like working with professionals, but learning from you all is a pleasure.

You are correct, weight lifting should be every other day. However, I see myself in the getting ready stage as you described and you described that very well. I am not doing what the men do. The men groaning as they left weights, scare me. I am afraid they will have a heart attack! I use the lowest possible weight until I can make things move with no effort. Then I go up one bar or I do a few more reps. It helps that there is another older woman who came to the gym with a physical therapist and she and I are on the same beginner's level. I pay attention to what she is doing.

The warming up part is hard for me because it is so boring! My problems began at birth with no left hip socket resulting in being in a body cast for a year, but later in life, I did janitorial work and felt like an Amazon woman who could do anything until my hip had to be replaced. I stopped being active then and fell apart. I have seen a physical therapist a few times and they always have me begin with bicycling. Right now I am using a rowing machine for my warm-up but maybe not long enough because it is so boring.

I rather use the other machines and go from one machine to the next in a circle about 3 times. But I also do flexibility exercises in the hot tub and pool exercises. However, I think the pool exercises are not as effective as the weight room? Especially this morning, the 7 simple exercises video made me aware that none of me is in very good physical condition and I have been working out in the pool for several months. If I were not afraid of pain, I would go back to being a janitor. I so want to feel as I did when I was a janitor but back pain following the hip operation, made me give it up.

 

[David777]

I've been suffering from January 6 with a rotator cuff injury that was loosely diagnosed as supraspinatus tendonitus. Since it only partially healed, it continues to aggravate, especially at night trying to sleep as almost every prone position is uncomfortable. Thus have unnaturally slept semi sitting up.

During this same period have been dealing with a much more potentially serious unknown that just this week has been conclusively diagnosed as a bone marrow neoplasm, polycythemia vera. The treatment for that is now proceeding and straightforward, not likely to affect my life much nor lifespan. So can now focus on my shoulder more closely.

After watching your video link, I carefully tried a few of the physical therapy exercises, I've seen elsewhere and the result was my shoulder ached some most of last night. A reason one with shoulder injuries ought be very careful with exercises as the structure is very complex. Will recommend looking at anatomy images under "shoulder tendon anatomy" as some injuries are difficult to diagnose accurately even with best medical experts. Expect I've also developed some subacromial bursitis that is intimately adjacent to the supraspinatus tendon. Wisest action is to use my right shoulder as little as possible until it heals as it is easily aggravated. Even typing on a keyboard with arm still is an issue.

 

[Vida May]

I've been suffering from January 6 with a rotator cuff injury that was loosely diagnosed as supraspinatus tendonitus. Since it only partially healed, it continues to aggravate, especially at night trying to sleep as almost every prone position is uncomfortable. Thus have unnaturally slept semi sitting up.

During this same period have been dealing with a much more potentially serious unknown that just this week has been conclusively diagnosed as a bone marrow neoplasm, polycythemia vera. The treatment for that is now proceeding and straightforward, not likely to affect my life much nor lifespan.

After watching your video link, I carefully tried a few of the exercises, I've seen elsewhere and the result was my shoulder ached some most of last night. A reason one with shoulder injuries ought be very careful with exercises as the structure is very complex. Will recommend looking at anatomy images under "shoulder tendon anatomy" as some injuries are difficult to diagnose accurately even with best medical experts. Expect I've also developed some subacromial bursitis that is intimately adjacent to the supraspinatus tendon. Wisest action is to use my right shoulder as little as possible until it heals as it is easily aggravated. Even typing on a keyboard with arm still is an issue.

I googled "bone marrow neoplasm, polycythemia vera". I never knew so many, many things could go wrong with our bodies! I hope treatments resolve the problem for you.

I am sure too much time on the computer is at least part of my problem. I may have to accept I need to change how much time I spend on the computer.

 

[Vida May]

I blew a rotator cuff a few years ago, and the doctor gave me a cortisone shot, and a series of exercises to do. I continue to do some of the exercises, and they certainly help...especially in the Winter when I'm often stuck in the house.

How did you hurt your cuff? I want to know so I can avoid that. This is not like when we were kids and ran through the fields with no fear of being harmed. We may have scraped a knee or gotten bruised but it never was a big deal because we always healed and didn't have to live with pain for years. Now I am terrified of falling and breaking, or tearing a ligament because I made the wrong move.

I studied gerontology and I don't think I was taught good information, because they led us to believe retired people play golf and take vacations, and most didn't have all the problems we associate with old age. However, women over 80 kept warning me that 60 is not really old, and I think now I am understanding what they were getting at.

 

[Vida May]

@JonSR77​

I did the full 10 minutes warm-up this morning because of what you said.

 

[Don M.]

How did you hurt your cuff?

I blew my rotator cuff by manhandling large heavy logs after chain sawing trees to fuel our outdoor wood furnace. I guess I forgot that I'm not 30 years old, anymore. After the shoulder healed, I learned to limit the weight of things I try to lift. Now, If I cut a huge tree, I slice it up into smaller portions.