My Top Tips

This is my most important post.

Feng told me I'd have good days and bad days. Today is a good day, very little pain. I could almost fantasise right now it's all but over, but I know, no such luck.  I'm going to do some serious stretching in a minute, and that will certainly bring back the pain, at least for a while.

Tip #1 Stay Positive
Yeah, right, I tell myself. That's what they all say, airhead self help books. Try doing that when your gurgling to the bottom of a day soaked in pain.

Well, no choice. The famous book On Death and Dying some years ago talked about the stages of grieving. That's sort of it.  You go through a phase of denial, followed by anger, and eventually you end up with acceptance (skipped a step or two here).

Frozen Shoulder takes a long time to heal, and eventually you have to accept it. Well I accept it maybe, but I sure as shit am not going to give in to it.

The real point is you must be active.  Do the exercises, do the stretches, get the therapy, and don't give up. Stupid idiot head flippin syndrome is not going to get the better of me.




Tip #2 Manage the Pain
The pain hits, and your reflex is to clam up. Do not do this.  

• Listen to your body. Yeah, it's bloody well winging about being sore here or aching there. So where exactly is it hurting? It may be the shoulder itself, or it may be referred pain. Or, I often find it's actually around my neck or upper back, stresses transmitted because I'm hunching my shoulders.
   
• Don't just sit there, get up and move.  My favourite exercise is the pulley system. I'll spend 10 or 15 minutes gently winching my arm up and down. It loosens things up a treat, and in my book is better than taking drugs.
   
• Use a heat sack.  I have a cloth sack filled with wheat that I put in the microwave.  Sometimes  I back myself up to a wall, and push the hot beads, massaging my back. Does wonders. Many times a day.
   
• Tiger Balm. Or similar. I use the hot stuff. The hotter the better. Hot enough to melt the cloths off my back if I could get it. Makes me smell like I've just come out of the football change room, but who gives a flying fig when it's relieving your pain!
   
• Drugs. Don't like them, but last resort. I've moped my way through a jumbo pack in the last 6 weeks or so

Tip #3 Exercise!!
Don't give in to the urge to go all floppy because you're in pain. More later exercises.


Tip #4 Therapy
I'm still having the weekly acupuncture and manipulation from Feng. However in the course of this melancholy I've found many different types of claimed cure.  I honestly don't know if there's a 'best' one, but in a future posting I'll catalogue them.


Tip #5 Log Your Progress
Since early on I've kept a chart showing my maximum stretch. See here.  The news may not always be good, but being able to measure your progress gives you evidence that it's working.
So far my gains have been marginal, but every so often I achieve a personal best, and that feels good.

Go to it!