| About a year ago. I tore my left rotator cuff lifting | | | | my shoulder felt great but it gradually deteriorated over |
| some flat pack office furniture. If I am honest, it was | | | | the next few weeks as I carried on using it as normal. |
| too heavy for me but I was in a hurry so tried lifting it | | | | Another steroid injection did the same. By now, I was |
| on my own. I was careful of my back, bent my knees, | | | | about six months in and seeing the specialist for the |
| took the strain with my thigh muscles and all was going | | | | third time. He suggested surgery to free up the |
| well until I felt a pop followed by a sharp pain in my | | | | trapped tendon. The idea was to shave away a piece |
| shoulder. I put the desk down, gave my shoulder a rub | | | | of bone to free up the tendon to allow it to heal. |
| and waited for my friend before continuing. | | | | Surgery was booked for three months away. |
| The next day I woke up with a sore shoulder which | | | | I did not want surgery. The general anaesthetic just |
| had started to stiffen up. Over the next few days it | | | | had no appeal; so I started looking into alternative |
| got more painful, raising my arm to the front or side | | | | treatments on the internet and discovered that |
| hurt, my shoulder gradually deteriorated until it was | | | | shoulder pain exercises form a large part of most |
| hurting all the time and the pain was spreading down | | | | therapy programmes for rotator cuff injuries. |
| my arm. It got weaker and weaker and more and | | | | This time I rested my shoulder properly, stopped driving, |
| more painful and the range of movement just got | | | | rearranged my desk at work and started taking |
| worse. I could not lie on it so sleep became difficult. | | | | anti-inflammatory drugs every four hours. Gradually the |
| In the end, after a few weeks, I took myself off to the | | | | pain subsided. Next I started a shoulder specific |
| doctor who diagnosed a rotator cuff problem and sent | | | | exercise programme. These were Pilates based and |
| me to see a specialist with firm instructions to rest my | | | | focused on flexibility and control. They were low |
| shoulder and to take some anti-inflammatory drugs to | | | | weight low resistance exercises designed to stretch, |
| help with the inflammation. | | | | strengthen and stabilize the whole shoulder to help |
| The specialist did an MRI scan and confirmed that I | | | | support the rotator cuff while it healed. |
| had torn my supraspinatus tendon in my left shoulder | | | | I started slowly and gradually increased the level of |
| and now had a shoulder impingement because the | | | | exercise. My shoulder started to improve and over the |
| tendon had become inflamed and was now getting | | | | next few weeks it returned to 100% pain free |
| trapped whenever I moved; hence the pain.. He gave | | | | movement. I was careful to avoid any exercise that |
| me a steroid injection to help with the inflammation and | | | | caused pain. |
| told me to rest my arm. | | | | So, if you have injured your shoulder, learn from my |
| Although there was a common theme of advice about | | | | mistake. Rest it and rest it properly. Then get |
| resting my shoulder I was too pig headed to take | | | | exercising, carefully, gradually building it up to strengthen |
| notice and really just paid lip service to it. The steroid | | | | your shoulder. And when your shoulder is better, keep |
| injection worked wonders and within a couple of days | | | | up the exercises. |