Bradley Maier
John,
I am NOT giving medical advice but the symptoms sound a lot like the "frozen shoulder" condition I developed out of the blue a year ago. It's apparently quite common, especially for those of us who recently earned our 50+ masters upgrade. In my case, I suffered for a few months hoping it would go away. Instead it just got worse. I lost range of movement and the pain became pretty intense. I had already had the other shoulder fixed by a local Therapeutic Associates PT a couple of years before that after an injury and so thought maybe she could help me again. I went to my physician who could not (but should have) been able to diagnose the problem. He was going to send me on my merry way still in pain while prescribing only large does of ibuprofen. I asked for a referral to a PT but he wasn't going to give it to me until he saw much difficulty I was had just putting my shirt back on.
Tony Rocklin at Therapeutic Associates in downtown Portland ( https://www.therapeuticassociates.com/locations/oregon/portlandvancouver/downtown-portland/team/ ) had me diagnosed with frozen shoulder syndrome in minutes and fully recovered within 2 months using only physical therapy. In my case, my physician's recommendation of anti-inflammatories and just wait it out was the worst possible advice. Tony is a miracle worker. He also fits bikes which is how I first discovered him and has a lot of experience with sports injuries. I have no idea if your wife is dealing with the same condition I had but it couldn't hurt to call Tony. If you do, please tell him I said hi. Full disclosure: I previously raced for the Therapeutics Associates sponsored team but no longer do so I have no ulterior motive here. Tony just f'ing rocks. Hope your wife figures out her problem and quickly recovers to play on! Brad
Dan Grabski
March 29, 2017 at 11:10 AM
Reply
I play cello and trombone, and deal with some shoulder issues - I had
another cellist recommend finding one of these people to go through the
Alexander Technique stuff:
http://www.amsatonline.org/teachers?name=&address=Portland&search_distance=0&search_units=mile
If she had just gotten back into playing, there is a good chance she may
just need to get some good habits established. Posture has a lot to do with
that sort of pain.
I am pretty militant about hating ibuprofen for that sort of thing as it
seems to just mask the underlying issues and never addresses the source.
Dan
On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 13:47 John Schmidt via OBRA
wrote:
> Hoping for some Obra Sports Injury expertise.
>
> My wife re-started playing the violin last fall. She quit playing as soon
> as it was obvious that it was causing some upper arm/shoulder pain.
>
> I figured it was a little muscle overuse, etc, would heal up shortly. But
> its been like 3 or 4 months and it doesn't seem to be getting any better
> only worse! She has seen the doctor (he had her do a week dosing on
> ibuprofen, which obviously did help some, while on it) , and then a good
> massage therapist (which helped for a bit also). Still not getting any
> better / and it does restrict some of her movement.
>
> Now If it were my muscle, I would dig in there or find a stretch that
> would solve the issue. But I can't know what the pain is, but also being
> family and not health professional i have to bite my tongue. She doesn't
> want to stretch it because it hurts.
> So a little worried / slight dilemma: She won't stretch it, massage helps
> but doesn't seem to be fixing the issue; its not getting better, possibly
> getting worse.
>
> Now my dad had a injury when he fall off his recumbent. Now the details
> aren't going to be exactly right, but the gist of it was when healing, one
> muscle/tendon fused (via scar tissue??) in his back to another and it
> restricted an arm's movement and ended up being painful, PT pushed him but
> there was obviously some thing wrong. Finally he went the chiropractic
> school (east portland?) and one of the students there identified the issue
> and "its going to be very painful, but I have to work this mucscle/tendon
> off the the other",And yes this did the trick. So just thinking maybe a
> similar scenerio with my wife??
>
> Anyway we have money in the HSA account, are on the westside (preferred
> since she dislikes driving) , but hell, I'll drive her to Bend or
> where-ever if there is someone who can fix this for her !
> thanks Obra for any help. from John
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John Schmidt
March 29, 2017 at 10:25 AM
Reply
Hoping for some Obra Sports Injury expertise.
My wife re-started playing the violin last fall. She quit playing as soon
as it was obvious that it was causing some upper arm/shoulder pain.
I figured it was a little muscle overuse, etc, would heal up shortly. But
its been like 3 or 4 months and it doesn't seem to be getting any better
only worse! She has seen the doctor (he had her do a week dosing on
ibuprofen, which obviously did help some, while on it) , and then a good
massage therapist (which helped for a bit also). Still not getting any
better / and it does restrict some of her movement.
Now If it were my muscle, I would dig in there or find a stretch that would
solve the issue. But I can't know what the pain is, but also being family
and not health professional i have to bite my tongue. She doesn't want to
stretch it because it hurts.
So a little worried / slight dilemma: She won't stretch it, massage helps
but doesn't seem to be fixing the issue; its not getting better, possibly
getting worse.
Now my dad had a injury when he fall off his recumbent. Now the details
aren't going to be exactly right, but the gist of it was when healing, one
muscle/tendon fused (via scar tissue??) in his back to another and it
restricted an arm's movement and ended up being painful, PT pushed him but
there was obviously some thing wrong. Finally he went the chiropractic
school (east portland?) and one of the students there identified the issue
and "its going to be very painful, but I have to work this mucscle/tendon
off the the other",And yes this did the trick. So just thinking maybe a
similar scenerio with my wife??
Anyway we have money in the HSA account, are on the westside (preferred
since she dislikes driving) , but hell, I'll drive her to Bend or
where-ever if there is someone who can fix this for her !
thanks Obra for any help. from John