My right shoulder has flared badly with tendonitis again (frozen shoulder). It's been getting worse since last June and ended up with a massive loss of movement as well as a lot of pain. Over a decade of using a walking stick has taken its toll. I've had tendon problems for well over a decade and I usually have issues somewhere in my body but this has got worse than other flares, compounded by the fact that I'm right handed and can't stop trying to use it.
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| Missy showing off her flexibility |
Back last October, a rheumatologist referred me to physio. I was first seen 3 weeks ago and have had a follow up this week. No x-rays were ordered at the time to check the arthritis component but thankfully my GP ordered them and there doesn't appear to be any major progression. So physio was deemed safe to go ahead with. Thank you to my GP for caring enough to check first.
I didn't have a clue what to expect as I've never had physio on the NHS before. I dosed up on the pain killers before going as I expected to be pulled about in a similar way to my rheumy examination. I needn't have worried though as my physio was really gentle and most the movements I did were under my own steam to access where my limits were and not cause it to get worse. I can't tell you what I relief it was after my previous experience of walking out of rheumy in floods of tears.
The initial assessment showed that I have pretty severe restrictions in movement. I was given 4 non-weight bearing exercises to do 'little and often'. They are quite basic and 3 of them can be done sat down with a cuppa so I did quite well with them.
At least, I did well with them until I had a flare triggered by breathing furniture polish at our local library. Until then, I was actually encouraged and getting a bit of movement back. Sadly, when I flare I get whole body inflammation, most noticeably in my nerves and brain but it's pretty much everywhere. During this flare, I was in such severe pain (not just my shoulder) that physio became impossible. I was forced to rest and wear a sling to take the weight of my arm while I waited out the flare.
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| I miss being creative. This is a painting I did of a photo I took in our garden. |
I was annoyed, not just by the extreme pain of the flare but also by being put back with my physio after a promising start. When I resumed it was like starting all over again and any benefit from before was lost.
I'm seriously wondering if I need to get another steroid shot into my shoulder to try and bring the inflammation under control. I can't take non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen as my blood doesn't clot and they are very dangerous for me. All I can do is try to avoid triggers meaning that as well as extremely tightly controlling my diet, I also can't go anywhere that there are people. :( The problem here is that our doctor's surgery isn't set up for people like me and involves sitting for hours (Yeah, literally. Last time was 2.5 hours!) in a crowded waiting room with lots of people who wear perfume, aftershave, and other strong scents. Simply trying to see a Dr makes me severely ill. I'm trying to do without steroids at the moment but feel that it's only a matter of time until I might have no choice.
After the flare, I managed to get in about a week of varied intensity physio (dictated by pain and inflammation each day) to try to get back on track.
I saw the physio again this week. I wore a face mask with a carbon filter to reduce chemical exposure. Wow, those things are sweaty but did colour co-ordinate with my purple jumper! Thankfully, there is a little bit of improvement but not as much as hoped. I explained about the flare and he thinks it's just going to take longer because of my illness but can be done.
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| Missy modelling a dress that I crocheted for her years ago |
Interestingly, that morning before seeing my physio, I must have forced my shoulder while getting out of bed as it crunched really loudly. It was one of those crunching, cracking noises that really makes you feel sick. Yuck! What I did note was that instantly the pain levels halved and I got some movement back. I don't know if I snapped a small bone spur that x-ray missed or what. My physio simply nodded and noted it in my file.
After measuring my range of movement, I have a slight improvement in 2 planes but a drastic reduction in the 3rd plane that makes one of the exercises impossible to do now. I've got some new exercises to carry on increasing the range of movement and one exercise to try to build up a bit of strength in the joint.
I have also noticed that the pain inside the joint itself has gone now but thanks to work from the physio my tendons are much more painful as I'm trying to stretch them out again. I think that's progress though.
I'm now doing the exercises in a bigger session first thing in the morning while in the shower. I find that warming the muscles greatly improves my range of movement so I use this to my advantage. Then I do short stretches throughout the day when I sit down for a cuppa, or to read. I'm hoping this strikes a better balance and I'm sure I overdid things the first few weeks. I also realise now how critical it is to avoid chemical triggers as well as food ones. That is going to be a big challenge.
I'm going back again in 3 weeks for another review. It feels like a challenge now to see how much better my movement can be by better pacing myself. I'm missing my hobbies while my arm is out of commission so the incentive is high. I miss being able to create and I want to get started on planting my garden this month with the seeds I had for my birthday. It has given me plenty of time for reading though and it is World Book Day this week! I quite like that silver lining. Maybe I'll have the incentive to review a couple of the best books that I'm reading. Afterall, I can still type!
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