ADLs (no defamation given or implied)

Some of you have probably heard or seen me mention that I’m in the midst of a bout of physical therapy, first for my right shoulder and then for an area inside my left shoulder blade that has been intermittently troublesome since I injured it 20-something years ago.

For those of you unfamiliar with this kind of thing, physical therapy breaks down into two basic components. First, there are anywhere from 1-3 sessions per week with a therapist. These vary, depending on the injury and the PT shop, but the place I go does manual therapy, where, the PT stretches, pushes, pulls, massages, whatever connecting anatomies, be they muscles, ligaments, tendons, bands or things I don’t know the words for, while pushing the skeleton into whatever position it’s supposed to be in order for everything to move around freely.

In my case, it turned out that the pain I was having in the two places was related. Essentially, every part of my back, from waist to neck, was way too tight, and it was pulling things out of their proper position and making even routine motions painful. It was pulling my shoulder capsule out of alignment, irritating the tendon that runs down my arm, the infamous bicep tendon- yes, I had the same problem as Cole Hamels. On the other side, it was pulling on this old injury, irritating everything around the scar tissue. But if it hadn’t been for that I’m quite sure I would have felt it in my other shoulder as well.

So they stretch all that stuff and shove things into place, and that’s 20 minutes a shot. The rest, and here’s the hard part, is up to me. Because my stuff is so widespread and my problems are “bilateral,” I have a series of stretches and exercises that I’m supposed to so every day, which grows with every session. The stretches are 30-60 seconds.

Here’s the list-
1.     Sleeper stretch- arm straight out at shoulder, elbow bent 90 degrees, push one arm down with the other
2.     Sleeper – arm raised 30 degrees
3.     Sleeper – arm down 30 degrees
4.     Foam roller on spine, roll side to side slowly for 3 minutes
5.     Roller parallel to shoulders- stretch back and over in 3 different position
6.     Roller on spine, hands behind head, let elbows drop
7.     10 pound weights in each hand, arms straight up, lift with shoulders only, 2x20 reps
8.     On knees with check on physio ball and arms to side. Raise and lower slowly 20 times with thumbs down
9.     Palms down
10. Thumbs up
11. Stretch arms out straight at shoulder height with resistance band
12. Internal rotation with resistance, both arms 20 each
13. External rotation with resistance, both arms 20 each
14. 30 Rows
15. Holding resistance band out in front, pull arm down to side 20 times
16. 10 chair push-ups, 10 regular push-ups
17. Sit on counter, grab edge and lean away for 60 seconds
18. Arms behind back, shoulders back and chin tucked in, pull down and hold for 60 seconds.
19. Shirt or towel looped over shoulder and behind back- pull down on shoulder for 60 seconds

I think that’s it. Every day since November. Honestly, I only do the stretches every single day, so that’s about half the list. The exercises get skipped if I’m sore (like after shoveling snow, not that that comes up more than 2-3 times a week).

But you know what? I just made it through two 5-hour plane flights without pain. That would have been excruciating 6 weeks ago. I can almost get back to my Activities of Daily Living