Steven and Physical Therapy

There's something wrong with my shoulder.  I blame the pandemic.

See, I keep a bag of masks in the car, and it eventually migrated to the floor in the back seat.  After several weeks of reaching behind the driver's seat, my right shoulder and arm started to hurt when I made this particular move.  Some time later, this pain spread to other times--when I raised my arm too high, or put my elbow backward, or when my shoulder just decided it would be fun to cause me agonizing pain.

This is no exaggeration.  One day at work, a spasm hit me so bad, I had to stop teaching and sit down until it passed.

I made an appointment with a joint specialist, who gave me an x-ray and pronounced that I'd injured my rotator cuff and it was quite possibly the result of reaching behind the car seat so often.  He gave me a painful shot of cortisone and sent me across the hall of the office building to sign up for physical therapy.

So now twice a week, I go down to this strange-looking gym, with beds and elastic straps and pulleys and weight machines and medicine balls in it, and a physical therapist puts me through exercises designed to stretch and strengthen the injured muscles and tendons.

I can't say I enjoy them.  They're repetitive and tiring and even painful.  I work through them for half an hour or so.  Then the therapist massages the affected areas, and then I sit with an ice pack draped over my shoulder for several minutes.  It's been three weeks and I'm not noticing any real improvement, though the therapist says that's normal.

At least it's all covered by insurance.

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