Ow! Ow! Ow!

[Janet]

Oh my gosh Gayle...that does have to be painful. Will this new type therapy work even though the last one didn't? I'm always doing something I just don't think I could handle shoulder pain very well...here I say that and I've been complaining on here about knee pain for over a year. I'm like you, I don't think it's that bad...some times it's so bad I want to crawl in a hole, other times, no pain at all. Guess you're setting a good example and maybe I should make an appointment too. ....always something isn't it? LOL

[Ponyup]

I have that as well. My chiropactor said I injured my shoulder at some time & never got it fixed. I get massages every 2 weeks. The reason it felt better on vacation is you relaxed. The pain in my shoulder gets way worse the more stressed I am. Those muscles tighten & cause even more motion restrictions. Once you get it losened up you will probably have to do some actual physical therapy to strengthen the area. My therapist recommended band exercises. I don't know if you're chiropractor has it, but min has this stuff called biofreeze. It's awesome stuff. I wouldn't use it unless they said it's okay, but it's good stuff.

[DianaB]

I had problems with my rotator cuff years ago too. I kept going to the chiropractor and I would get temporary relief but wasn't getting better. Then we had a sports injury doctor come to our hospital and I got an appointment with her. It was one of the best things that I've ever done for myself. She did some simple tests and an x-ray and came up with what my problem was. Basically I was drawing up my shoulders and had been doing it long enough to cause muscle and rotator cuff problems. I took some therapy for a few weeks but the best part was was that in two days the pain went away! I still pull out my stretches and exercises when I feel like I'm having problems. I hope that you find relief from your pain as easily as I did and get to feeling better soon, Gayle.

[judy]

I'm sorry you're in pain! Does your chiropractor do massage therapy too?
If so, that's great. It will go away, but you have to go through the pain first.
I hope it goes quickly.

I just had to find a new chiropractor because I moved. My old chiro was a magician! I went to her several years ago in agony, and she helped me in 3 visits! There is some fusion between the vertebrae in my neck. I have scoliosis,
which is probably from aging. My neck was beginning to get really painful about 2 weeks ago because my old chiro kept it in check. I went once a month. I found a pretty good new one up here, and a wonderful massage therapist. Just yesterday it began to feel better.

[gja1000]

Thanks so much for all the encouragement and suggestions!

Diana, that is exactly what the doc has me doing , stretching exercises. I did go to PT for the problem with a sports med doc, but I don't think the exercises PT had me do were the correct exercises for this problem.

Yes, the chiro has a massage theraptist and in fact she worked on me yesterday and my next two appts are with the massage therapist, not the chiro.

They said it will be a process of stretching out the contracted muscles, strenghtening the correct muscles so that the problem doens't come back. Part of the problem is staying "hunched over" the computer!!! I'm not sure how I'm going to "stop" that!!!

[DianaB]

I was just going to say that my problem was holding my shoulders hunched up. It made the other muscles work differently than they were suppose to and that's what caused my problem. I hurt clear up into the base of my head. I kept asking the chiropractor if he couldn't adjust it way up there but he couldn't. I had pains in my shoulders too. Keep me posted on how it's going and if you need me to I'll hunt up my stretches and send them to you to try. They were just very simple stretches and nothing that hurt to do. Just learning to relax your shoulders when you're doing stuff will help the most but you also need to strengthen those muscles too. Good luck!

[gja1000]

Yes, I'd love for you to describe your stretches. Right now, I've started with the pectoralis stretch - holding on to a door jam and leaning forward (or stepping forward) till I have a stretch on the pectoral muscles in the front of my shoulder. My problem in hunching my shoulders forward so the pec muscles in the front of my shoulder have shortened and are pulling the rotator cuff in an odd way so that it is being impinged at the socket.