Going to PT -- Again: Rotator Cuff This Time

 

I spent March going to PT

While I was working for Newman University in Kansas, the VP of Student Affairs observed that her parents were aging under different models: "My mom is rusting out, and my dad is wearing out."  I have long expected that I am on the "wearing out" trajectory.  And so here I am at age 64 with a torn rotator cuff on my right side. 

I have already experienced problems with my right shoulder / arm.  While living in Indiana, I saw an physical therapist for an AC joint impingement and another one for a pinched ulna nerve.  In West Virginia, I saw a physical therapist for a torn piriformis, but that is an issue with my hip (but also on the right side).  Now I am visiting a physical therapist here in Ephraim for a torn rotator cuff. 

I knew something was wrong, but I have been busy supporting my mother, which meant that I was traveling to Utah County (90 miles each way) two or three times a week while working two part jobs and doing volunteer work. (My mother was widowed in January. In February, she fell and broke her left arm in three places. She needed help because of being in a cast.) 

I was going to seek help for myself in May after I filed grades for the semester (I teach a class on research paper writing for Snow College); however, I got to the point where I did not want to use my right arm (my dominant side). 

I was switching to using my ungraceful and weaker left arm, because with my right arm, I could not hang up clothes, could not reach for a bar of soap in the bathtub, and couldn't carry anything over a pound with my right hand.  So I caved and got treatment plan after the  diagnosis, which included movement tests and images: first an x-ray then a sonogram. 

How did I tear my rotator cuff? 

I cannot pin it down to one event. I tend to think I can function as a 46 year old instead of a 64 year old. I think it's general wear and tear. While in Indiana, I attended 10 to 18 classes at the YMCA each week--doing a range of workouts: cardio, stretching, and strength training.  Over the last two and a half years, I have been working out 3 to 5 times a week--doing a mix of yoga, swimming, and strength training.

 However, I think the biggest stress came from my carrying big boxes of books for the public library where I work 15 hours a week. I am the one who takes books that do not sell from our book sale and put them in my car. I was loading up xerox boxes with books. Now I am carrying fewer books to my car to prevent further damage. 

I do not want to do surgery even though I am a candidate. Both of my paternal grandparents died from complications from surgery. (My dad's father got a blood clot during gall bladder surgery and died in his 30s. My dad's mother had a heart episode in her mid 80s while using a snow blower to clear her driveway. She successfully received a stent in an artery that needed to be cleared only to be poisoned by the anesthetic; her kidney was too compromised and failed.)

Also, I am a bit of a control freak. I would rather work myself through a problem than be knocked out and have people work on me. 

For a couple of months, I went to physical therapy twice a week initially and then once a week. I did exercises at home. 

After about eight week, I had full range of motion again.  I am now trying to reduce the load I put on my right shoulder.