- 5-10 minutes with a heat pack on the shoulder
- An exercise where I put my right hand on a table, bend over with my left arm hanging straight down and rotate my hips clockwise for 2 sets of 10 and then counter-clockwise for 2 sets of 10. This moves the whole body including the shoulder without actually rotating the shoulder joint. Pretty painless exercise.
- Sit on a rolling chair with both hands in front of me on a table. I then push back with my feet, leaving my hands on the table, until my arms are fully extended. I do 3 sets of 10 and again a pretty painless exercise
- Now comes the "fun" part. For about 20-30 minutes Beth performs the range of motion exercises on my shoulder. She moves it in multiple directions to loosen it up and break down the scar tissue. This is by far the most painful part of the session. The pain is not so much pain as it is just a really super tight feeling in my shoulder which just happens to be painful on some stretches. I know that doesn't make sense but it is the best way to describe it.
- After the range of motion exercises I go and work out with pulleys for 4 minutes. It consists of me pulling down on the pulleys with my right arm causing my left arm to rise to just above shoulder height. Then I let gravity take my left arm back down while controlling the decent with my right arm.
- After this my shoulder gets iced down while receiving my electro-shock therapy for 15 minutes. The electro-shock therapy (that's what I call it) consist of 4 patches stuck on my shoulder that are attached to a machine that sends electronic pulses to my shoulder creating the feeling of a massage.
This is a blog documenting my surgery and rehabilitation from a SLAP tear suffered in my left shoulder. The surgery took place on Thursday December 16th 2010 and the physical therapy appointments are expected to last 3-6 months and then another 6-9 months of home physical therapy. Total time from surgery to full recovery is about 1 year.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
What Does Therapy Consist Of At First?
My therapy sessions last about an hour right now and consist of the following:
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