Thursday 17 November 2011

Week 12 - and it's all about Trigger Points

I've mentioned in previous posts about treating trigger points with a tennis ball. If this sounds surreal then I will explain.

Trigger points - so the experts write - are painful points, like knots, in muscles. They are a result of overuse or straining of a muscle and can cause actute pain that is difficult to pinpoint. E.g. you can have a pain down the back of your arm your caused by a trigger point under your shoulder blade. A trigger point can be released by pressing hard on it with a thumb or finger(s) or by rolling on a tennis ball. Typically it takes between 30 and 90 seconds of pressing for the pain to go - it's quite wierdly relieving!

The private physio therapy practice I visit treats trigger points whereas, in my experience, NHS pysios do not. In my last post I complained of continuing pain in the back of my shoulder. Some further googling found this article:

http://www.pressurepointer.com/Serratus%20anterior_trigger_points.htm

After rolling around on a tennis ball trying to push the trigger points out of my rotator cuff, it appears that most of the pain was caused by the Serratus Anerior which is partially covered by the shoulder blade. Three days of following the advice in the article above and things feel much better. I almost feel like there is an end in sight to my suffering!

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Week 11 - Hard to gauge progress

Had a quick count up of the weeks since surgery; we're now in week 11, so we're 10 and a bit weeks in. This means I've been doing active exercises for nearly four weeks - feels a lot longer.

I'm certainly not free of pain. The shoulder gets stronger week by week, but I still have moments of paranoia that I might of damaged the repair. This is because at times, it feels like it did before the surgery!

In the last week or so the pain has subsided in the front of the shoulder (around the tenodesis) and left me with more pain in the rear of the shoulder (cuff repair), so I frequently worry that I've damaged the cuff repair.

In truth, it still feels stronger and I haven't experienced any sudden pain or loss of strength that would indicate damage - just paranoia!

I went to see an NHS physio for one session and I'm sad to say I won't be going back. The work I'd put in to my own recovery was ignored (I had 90% range at this point). I was given a set of rudimentary isometric exercises to do. The fact that I'd been doing these since week 5 and it was now week 7 was lost on her! I've since sought physio guidance privately.

The rehab physio that I'm doing involves small weights of between 1 and 2 KGs. I'm waiting until I'm beyond 12 weeks before I can start to crank up the weights (I have read that at 3 months the healing is advanced enough to permit a gradual weight increase).

Back to see the surgeon in another 6 weeks - I really do hope by then that the pain is subsiding.