| I tore my rotator cuff about twelve months ago | | | | week my shoulder had stopped working. My |
| and since then have managed to find out a great | | | | occasional pain had turned into a constant ache, |
| deal about rotator cuff injuries and how simple | | | | my shoulder and arm had become weaker with |
| shoulder pain exercises can do a lot to help sort | | | | each passing day. |
| them out. Unfortunately I found out too late to | | | | I made an appointment at the doctor's who sent |
| help myself but am happy for others to learn | | | | me to a shoulder specialist. He tried various |
| from my mistakes. | | | | conservative treatments before deciding that |
| I was helping a friend build a wodden garage when | | | | surgery was needed to solve the problem. The |
| a gust of wind caught one of the sides. I | | | | surgery was a great success. The surgeon |
| instinctively reached out to grab it and felt a pop | | | | shaved away a small piece of bone to free up |
| in my shoulder as the panel was snatched away | | | | the tendon. Once I had recovered from the |
| from me by its own weight. It hurt at the time | | | | surgery I started a therapy programme to get |
| but I thought that I had just pulled a muscle. | | | | my shoulder back to full strength. |
| What I had actually managed to do was tear one | | | | I have been lucky. Had I continued to use my |
| of the tendons in my shoulder. | | | | shoulder I could have damaged myself really |
| The following day I woke up with a stiff shoulder. | | | | badly, ending up with a full thickness rotator cuff |
| It hurt when I tried lifting my arm out to the | | | | tear which would have greatly reduced my |
| front or side and if I reached behind me but | | | | chances of a successful outcome. As it was the |
| every other movement was okay so I took | | | | whole process from start to finish has taken up |
| some pain killers and ignored it. That was my first | | | | nearly a whole year. |
| mistake. | | | | Interestingly, had I simply rested my shoulder at |
| I had torn my supraspinatus which is one of the | | | | the start and gone to the doctor straight away I |
| tendons in the rotator cuff. Because it was | | | | could have spared myself a great deal of pain and |
| damaged it had become inflamed. The | | | | inconvenience and saved a lot of time. The exact |
| supraspinatus runs through a channel of bone at | | | | same exercises that I used after surgery could |
| the top of the shoulder blade where it attached | | | | have stopped me from needing surgery in the |
| to the collar bone. Because it was inflamed it was | | | | first place. All I needed to do was to rest my |
| getting pinched in this channel of bone whenever I | | | | arm, treat the inflammation and then once the |
| raised my arm. This was the pain that I was | | | | pain had subsided I could have started exercises |
| feeling. | | | | to strengthen my shoulder. |
| By carrying on regardless, I was gradually fraying | | | | Job done! So learn from my mistake. Take your |
| the tendon more with each movement. The | | | | shoulders seriously and if they hurt for more than |
| damage was getting worse and so were my | | | | two or three days, take them to the doctor. |
| symptoms. By the end of the second or third | | | | |