Over this week I keep doing the recommended shoulder exercises, and used the pulley I'd bought from Amazon. Each day the ROM gets better, and when I run my left arm can now support its own weight in a running bent position, and the shoulder swing becomes more normal. I'm still slow though.
The physio had recommended something that worked though - Actipatch. I wear this pretty constantly, and within 3 hours of putting it on the first time my shoulder had started to feel more relaxed and the ache went. Apparently creates an electromagnetic field between the coil which encourages blood flow and re-trains nerves. Works for me.
The pain remains different. My shoulder no longer feels jammed up and stuck, and there are no spasms. However I do continue to take codeine at night, as the pain can creep up on me in the early morning, particularly when I've been running. The pain doesn't bother me though - I can't even bear to see a broken bone on tv, and a bone sticking through the skin can make me vomit, so having my own fracture, and spasms, and grinding sounds and sensations, just freaked me out completely. Compared to the pain back in the beginning, this is just nothing.
I'm sleeping well, and can now use my left arm a lot more. I can carry things with my left hand, as long as it isn't too heavy. I start doing pilates again, with modifications where I can't get quite get the motion in my left arm. I add light hand weights to my ROM exercises. My shoulder starts to lose its deformed shape, as the muscles start to come back.
I go to the physio again. Even less useful than last week (at least last week she recommended the Actipatch, so one useful thing came out of it). I demonstrate my ROM again, then get sat on a bed with a megapulse machine pointed at my shoulder for 15 minutes. That's it, go home. Pointless. Plus a recommendation not to wear the Actipatch during the day, only overnight. This isn't consistent with the advice from the manufacturer. That afternoon my shoulder is actually sore, but I have no idea whether it was the megapulse, or not wearing the Actipatch. Hmmm.
The physio had recommended something that worked though - Actipatch. I wear this pretty constantly, and within 3 hours of putting it on the first time my shoulder had started to feel more relaxed and the ache went. Apparently creates an electromagnetic field between the coil which encourages blood flow and re-trains nerves. Works for me.
The pain remains different. My shoulder no longer feels jammed up and stuck, and there are no spasms. However I do continue to take codeine at night, as the pain can creep up on me in the early morning, particularly when I've been running. The pain doesn't bother me though - I can't even bear to see a broken bone on tv, and a bone sticking through the skin can make me vomit, so having my own fracture, and spasms, and grinding sounds and sensations, just freaked me out completely. Compared to the pain back in the beginning, this is just nothing.
I'm sleeping well, and can now use my left arm a lot more. I can carry things with my left hand, as long as it isn't too heavy. I start doing pilates again, with modifications where I can't get quite get the motion in my left arm. I add light hand weights to my ROM exercises. My shoulder starts to lose its deformed shape, as the muscles start to come back.
I go to the physio again. Even less useful than last week (at least last week she recommended the Actipatch, so one useful thing came out of it). I demonstrate my ROM again, then get sat on a bed with a megapulse machine pointed at my shoulder for 15 minutes. That's it, go home. Pointless. Plus a recommendation not to wear the Actipatch during the day, only overnight. This isn't consistent with the advice from the manufacturer. That afternoon my shoulder is actually sore, but I have no idea whether it was the megapulse, or not wearing the Actipatch. Hmmm.
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