How Do I Know If PT Can Help Me? HOW DO I KNOW IF PHYSICAL THERAPY CAN HELP ME?
belt? If you have substantially different in motion right to left then this is often a sign of the shoulder getting tight and causing pressure and often causing pain in the front of the shoulder. 4. Can you reach across the front of your chest and grab your opposite shoulder? Does that create front shoulder pain or pressure? Tightness in the back of the shoulder causes a lot of front shoulder pain and the answer is in loosening these muscles to reduce the pressure/pain it causes in the front. 5. How do your muscles perform? Can you grab a gallon of milk (8 lbs.) or water easily and lift it out of the fridge to the table? Do you hike the shoulder blade when doing that and cause the neck to get tight? Did you know that weak shoulders can contribute to ongoing neck problems? 6. Can you go out and do light work like washing windows, washing your car or even pushing up out of a chair without pain then or later? 7. Can you sleep on your shoulder for extended periods? Does your shoulder prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep? Some people go buy an expensive new mattress thinking it’s the bed when in fact it is muscles and joints that are under stress. (see short article on beds and pain in this issue). If several of these tests are positive, you have mechanical stress/pressure under the inflammatory pain which is a perpetuating factor in why you are not getting better. You should seriously consider getting a consult and see how we can help you or just talk to your doctor for a referral. Physical therapy treats the mechanical source of your pain and when that is improved the basis for low grade inflammatory agitation is reduced and critical space is restored. You will then move with greater ease and comfort. Yes, you still have your degenerative osteoarthritis but it’s not stopping you now or it is just less of a factor. Arthritis is a gray word; it is not a black or white situation. You can have mild to severe arthritis. For those of youwho havemild tomedium joint changes there is a lot PT can do for you and a consult would clear up a lot of your questions. I hope this article helps you to understand why it is important to know the difference between mechanical basis for pain and an inflammatory basis, sound knowledge is so important with so many opinions on how or where to get help. It’s a new year and the future is more enjoyable with a body that can meet your expectations. Make up your mind this month to get the help you need to live the life you want, that would be a good New Year’s goal.
There is a lot of attention on the word arthritis and how it is responsible for someone’s pain. You have pain in your back or shoulder and it is ongoing and giving it time is not the answer. You see your doctor; they take an x-ray and see some arthritis and the conclusion is this is why you hurt. Arthritis can be painful but to say that 100%of someone’s pain is due to arthritis is not always the whole story. The bigger culprit in why you hurt, especially pain that came on for no particular reason, maybe slowly crept into your body and decided not to leave, is pressure. Yes, pressure. Excessive pressure on a joint surface or concentrated pressure on a portion of a joint surface is not comfortable and if this happens to be in a joint with some arthritic change then the effects of pressure are even worse. Loss of space due to pressure is a very common occurrence as one gets older and handling the source of pressure is key to having some control over pain. Ongoing pressure and friction can create low grade inflammation but is the inflammation really the source of the problem? Behind the inflammation ismechanical stress or pressure and that iswhere you can do something about your pain beside medicate and curtail your activity. If you have been dealing with somemusculoskeletal pain issue for months then you’remore than likely dealing withmore of amechanical pain source versus an inflammatory source. Inflammation typically goes through a healing cycle in four to six weeks, having pain for months is not fully in alignment with the healing cycle for inflammation andmedicating is not the full answer, although it might be helpful temporarily. But who just wants temporary relief and is dependent on unnecessary medication? Handling the source for the mechanical pain is the long-term answer that actually resolves the source of pain and pressure. Let’s take your shoulder as an example. Here are a few tests to show you if you’re having mechanical stress under your “arthritis pain.” Some of these tests are easier to see the differences when standing in front of a mirror. 1. When you raise your arm in front or out to the side overhead, do you get pain in the middle of the range? Especially if you move quickly. Try different angles. This is a test for impingement which is a pressure type of pain and requires an improvement in how the shoulder muscles steer the shoulder bones. 2. Is one shoulder’s motion much less than the other when raising your arms over head? You can have tightness in your shoulder, the shoulder blade or in your ribs and trunk muscles that can contribute to this loss of motion.
Vincent Hanneken, PT
3. Can you put your hand up your back easily like when putting on a bra or
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