AN A-Z OF DORSAL AND THORACIC PAIN: FROZEN SHOULDER
Usually, this is the result of an uncorrected shoulder injury. The tendon in the front of the shoulder has rolled out of its groove when the fascia is torn. We are talking here about a very neglected injury.
It takes years for a shoulder to get into such a state. Because the injury was not acute, it has taken years to become troublesome. Some of my best friends have started out as frozen shoulder cases, because we have time to get to know each other very well over about twenty treatments.
It is a cruel condition and requires lots of sympathy with the therapy. You learn patience and become philosophical about why you needed such a pain in your life! I use all my therapies for this one.
One of the interesting observations that we have made is that a frozen shoulder is nearly always accompanied by an old pelvic (or sacro-iliac) joint injury. Fixing this as well seems to hasten recovery. It is understandable when you know how muscles function. Nothing in the body acts on its own.
On my doctor’s advice I had many treatments from a physiotherapist, including some most uncomfortable traction sessions. Becoming gradually worse, I had to give up work and finished up with a frozen shoulder and in a great deal of pain.
After taking a prescribed course of anti-inflammatory tablets, I added flatulence and indigestion to my list of woes. The tablets affected me badly as far as my stomach goes and didn’t help my shoulder any. I refused to take any more and asked the doctor was there nothing else to be done for my now useless arm?
By good luck, not by good management, I found my osteopath. She said, ‘Why didn’t you get something done for your arm before it became so bad?’ I would have slapped her only I couldn’t use my arm! Having undergone eighteen months of pain and cancelling a long-wished-for overseas trip, there had seemed to be no answer. She tested it, and said: ‘Of course it will take a while but yes, it can be fixed.’
The cure was not quick: it involved many treatments, osteopathic massage, change of diet, supplements and exercise in water. At last came the big day when I could put my arm straight up over my head! I will never forget how good that felt, how thankful I felt and still do feel. Twenty years later I can continue to indulge myself playing my violin.
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