Rehab of my Left Shoulder

I finally received the office doc's request to see a physiotrist (rehab medicine) for my left shoulder. She calls it Frozen Shoulder. I was expecting the rehab to be requested since it's been almost a month now that the pain has remained.

I've not been getting a good night's sleep because of the soreness. This is especially when without realizing it, the shoulder goes into an awkward position.

The physiotrist, however didn't say that, but simply pressed my neck, back and shoulders to look for tenderness. The doctor, Dr. Betty Mancao, says she still recognizes me from 2004 when I had my back rehab treatment due to my heavy deadlifts from lifting weights back then.

The reason I came back to her was because her treatment on me in 2004 was very effective. I suppose it's one reason why she has so many patients until today.

I was so lucky because in spite of me being there before her time at 3:30pm, I was already the last patient for her to see.

The rehab clinic has moved inside at Casa Medica and is now much bigger with maybe 10 beds or more compared to the previous setup which only had 3.

The procedures were still the same: hot packs for 20 minutes to relax, ultrasound (for deep tissues) for 5 minutes and the rest were exercises.




This time, the stretching exercises were mostly assisted by the physical therapist, Martin. There were no hard tugs or pulls. It was all carefully positioned gentle stretches. The left shoulder blade was stretched also.

Doc Mancao's diagnosis as written on the endorsement slip to Medicard (my HMO) is Bicipital Tendinitis (or Tendonitis). The illustration below shows where the Bicipital Tendinitis is.


Here's a brief overview of the therapy stretching exercises.

Here's another exercise set.
You'll find details on the dumbbell weight exercises here and here.
The details of the stretch cord exercises are illustrated here and here.

I also supplemented my therapy with shoulder exercises at home.

My tendinitis is due to overuse of the shoulder from a "throwing activity". I suppose those explosive butterfly strokes in swimming count as "throwing". Its common to swimmers, rowers, throwers, weightlifters and golfers. A related article may be seen here.

How was the PT session you ask? Well, it was VERY effective coz for the first time I slept soundly without being bothered by the shoulder!



Go ahead, post your comment below!