HELP!!!

[TommyK]

Greetings,

I need help for a variety of shoulder injuries. I have been diagnosed with a subflexor separation of the right shoulder, a bone chip in the right shoulder, injured rotar cuffs (both shoulders), and most importantly, at this stage SEVERE TENDONITIS (First the right, NOW the left).

I am currently in physical therapy, 2 x a week, for the last 6 weeks, and while the troubled shoulder (right) has improved, the 'good' shoulder has gone downhill.

The Tendonitis in the LEFT shoulder is so annoying I wake up 2-6 times a night and I have mild pain in the area of the upper bicep most of the day. Certain movements cause great pain, especially against resistemce, I have almost no power on these certain movements and the physical therapy has been stalled as far as improvement goes. ANY constructive advice for the SEVERE Tendonitis will be appreciated.

Thanks, and regards,
TommyK

[Gil Gillespie]

Tommy---- At this point I have no concrete advice but noting your struggles I'll see what I can find out. My sensei has tendonitis in his wrist and bursitis in his shoulder. I'll ask him first.

Mostly I just wanted to tell you you're not alone & your E-budo brothers are thinking about you.

[TommyK]

Hi Kent,

I think #3 fits the best!!!

Regards,
TommyK

[Yojimbo558]

Hi Tommy,

Sorry to hear about your perdicament. When I was in Okinawa, out of boredom some friends and I got into a wrestling match that resulted in my tearing my rotator cuff...this was not fun...and took nearly a year to heal.

Bones are wonderful, the body will heal and knit breaks or fractures in a matter of weeks ( 6 weeks is the norm ). Muscle tears, tendons, and ligaments on the other hand can take anywhere from 6 months to a year ( or longer ) to heal.

What will get you back in action depends up to you. I finally healed up when I stopped pushing it...accepted that I was injured and let it heal without forcing it back into action to soon...which was fortunate. Because almost as soon as I got back Saddam invaded Kuwait and it was time to deploy again :)

In addition to physical therapy, stretching on your own or looking into Chinese Medicines to help suppliment your recovery. You need to maintain movement. Not gross lifting or excessive torquing your body. Just shoulder shrugs, and making circles with your arms as much as possible without inducing to much pain. The reason for this being that the bodies joints when used shrink so as to facilitate better movement. For example when a professional swimmer retires, if they stop swimming altogether their shoulder joints enlarge since they no longer need that smaller size to promote economy of motion. Just like someone who stops running loses density in their bones, since they no longer need to be that strong. Your body completely replaces it's skeleton every year and a half. This is why astronauts lose bone density when staying in zero gravity for several months.

Where this relates to you is your good shoulder. No activity for it over an extended period will result in its being degraded as well.

To preserve movement I practised my martial arts for that time period in slow motion to avoid causing further injury...while aiding my self in slowing regaining and recovering my range of motion.

Good luck...and don't push it to hard or you'll extend the length of your recovery period.

Eric Bookin

[TommyK]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your support, but I hope that you are wrong about the time frame. At my age, I don not have a lot of time to waste. Hope you are wrong, I'll keep you posted.

Regards,
TommyK

[Yojimbo558]

Hi Tommy,

I hope your recovery comes much faster as well, see your physical therapyst for further ideas about do's and don'ts.

What type of training do you do? If it's weapons, then for example one thing alot of martial artists do if they hurt their shoulders or elbows to the point where just holding a sword or practise sword is just to painful...is to simply get a piece of wood the length of the hilt. This way they can practise the movement without having the weight kill them so to speak. If your training is grappling, short of slow motion training, or your own version of shadow boxing ( throwing ) I don't know what else to recommend.

Eric Bookin