I finally made it through my first physical therapy appointment for a painful right shoulder that didn't want to get better on its own. I tried the test of time to see if the pain would get better on its own. It would not. So here I am with my physical therapy goals. I made my first appointment many months ago but then Mrs Happy got pregnant and I figured I wasn't that far off until the next calendar year. If I waited, I could take advantage of my own HSA program through deductible stacking and have the entire cost of physical therapy and any other potential evaluations be covered at 100%, without any copays, considering the cost of her delivery would eat up the entire deductible this year.
After an extensive evaluation by the physical therapist, he localized the issue to a potential impingement syndrome involving my teres major/minor and infraspinatus muscle region. I suspect I have a component of subluxation and the constant malalignment of my shoulder is causing inflammation and pain when I take my arm behind me past parallel (throwing a ball action). I was given an exercise regiment to complete at home and I've scheduled 2-3 visits a week at the physical therapy department at my hospital to work on my shoulder. Here I am at my first physical therapy appointment, hairy chest and all, hooked up to the electrodes for a little electrical stimulation of my shoulder. And below, I took this video at my second visit showing my deltoid contract from the electrical stimulation. If this doesn't work, I think I'll self refer myself for an MRI and an orthopaedic consultation. It's times like this I'm glad I'm a physician.
UPDATE: It didn't work. I kept having persistent pain with not significant improvemen with either the E-stim or the range of motion exercises. I ended up getting an MRI that showed a posterior labral tear. I eventually got it injected and have been mostly pain free for over a year.
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