Shoulder Exercise #2

At last, my tendency to be sentimental about gifts paid off!  As a little girl, I was given a baton and taught to twirl.  I’ve kept the baton all these years – and now I can use my old baton to do one of the exercises that the physical therapist recommended for my shoulders.

No, he didn’t suggest that I resume twirling a baton!  I just use it as a long stick.  If I didn’t have a baton, I’d buy a dowel at the hardware store (and maybe a couple rubber feet to pad the ends and keep them from scratching the floor).  (no need to watch the video – I just liked the visual)

Back to shoulder exercises.  This one is done prone:  back flat on the floor, feet flat on the floor, knees bent:

• The baton lays across my stomach to start.  I started to say “raise the bar” but that sounds like arms go straight up toward the ceiling, which is wrong.  This doesn’t look anything like bench presses.  It’s more a range-of-motion thing.  I grab the bar with both hands and move both arms together (as nearly as possible) first toward the ceiling, but continue on toward the wall/floor again.  Eventually (on good days) my arms end up by my ears and the bar is resting on the floor just past the top of my head.  Return to the original position.
• 10-15 reps with hands wider than shoulders.
• Repeat with hands centered close together.
• Repeat with hands approximately shoulder-width apart.

I can definitely do this more easily than I could a month ago.  If done on a weight bench, it’s possible to go past 180 degrees to get a little more range of motion.

Disclaimer:  this is not medical advice.  Consult your personal physician for diagnosis and treatment of your medical issues.

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Update:  my shoulder is no longer keeping me awake at night.  This is good.  Unfortunately, it’s quite a bit short of my goal;  I was really hoping for “back to normal,” like last time I did PT.  Until things improve, I’ve rearranged my kitchen so that it’s a little easier to do things left-handed.  Back in junior high, I had broken bones that led to my learning to eat with my off-hand; that is a skill I’ve kept tuned over the years, and it’s come in handy.

Shoulder Exercise #1

I promised to share some of the things that my physical therapist prescribed.  The first (and easiest) range of motion exercise:

Pendulum:  bend at the waist and let your arm dangle straight down, then swing it in around in circles.  The trick is to not move your arm, but to just let it hang there and swing freely.  I was told that doing this simplest of exercises correctly involves a slight sway of the body to make the arm swing around.

This exercise works even better with a small weight.  A two-pound weight like the one pictured here can just be strapped around your wrist:

Having tried two different types of wrist/ankle weights, I can attest to the fact that the kind with the velcro strap going all the way around is better than the less expensive model with just a tiny tab.  If you don’t have access to one of these, holding a water bottle or can of food in your hand can also provide the extra weight needed to turn your arm into a pendulum.

Do this 3-4 times a day for maximum benefit.

Disclaimer:  this is not medical advice.  Consult your personal physician for diagnosis and treatment of your medical issues.

 

Addendum:  illustration of this exercise here

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I’m finding that my shoulder feels much better as long as I stay away from my computer.  Reaching for the mouse starts my shoulder hurting again.  Fifteen minutes of reaching out for the mouse leads to my shoulder and arm aching for hours.  Expect posting to be sparse until things improve.

Pain Scale and PT

We already knew that the little smiley-face pain scale was useless.  Someone drew a new one!  It’s definitely worth checking this one out.

That pain scale has nothing to do with what’s going on with PT, but I couldn’t resist passing along the link.  On the PT front, that’s how I’m spending this month.  Why?  When I saw my PCP, he ordered an MRI of my shoulder which showed bursitis, tendinitis (I’ve seen this spelled both with an I and with an O – take your pick), a bursa tear, some rotator cuff tears, and further deterioration of the OA in my AC joint.  Ah, well, that explains why my shoulder hurts.

Dr. PCP referred me for physical therapy.  The guy I’ve seen before was full, but his partner had an opening so I’ve been seeing him instead.  Nice guy, different approach.  I’m scheduled for twice a week over the next month, which will use up half of my allotted PT appointments for the year and results in way too many medical contacts for the first quarter of this year.

• January:  one doctor’s appointment
• February:  one scheduled, but the rheumy got sick and cancelled.  Sorry she was sick, but I got a whole month with no appointments of any kind, which I’m thrilled about
• March:  two doctor’s appointments already, plus another one scheduled for the end of the month, plus PT twice a week all month

PCP asked if I need anything else for the pain.  Not a chance. Which means that the pain makes me in not such a good mood lately.  Feldene and tylenol combine to make things nearly tolerable.  I don’t do so well with the stronger drugs.   My attitude about all this really sucks, and I’m tired of trying to find something to be positive about, so I’ll keep the posting light so as to spare you from my negativity.

Once I’m in a better frame of mind, I’ll post about some of the exercises I’m doing to regain my range of motion.
Thanks for reading.