The Guilty article

Look what I found today, lying near the kitchen at work. This is the offending item.
This is the sponge ball I threw, triggering my Frozen Shoulder.

I HATE this ball.

Now tell me it's only a thing, so how can I hate that. Don't care, not about logic. I HATE this ball.

Zap #2 - Tap Zap

A Zap occurs when you automatically rip your arm in one direction or other because of something you didn't expect.  The high-speed arm yanking manoeuvre causes sudden, severe pain.

Frozen Shoulder has revealed to me surprising opportunities for creative new ways to trigger the Zap. Here's one I'd never have thought of.

The other day I was in the kitchen; arm very sensitive so I asked handy stray person nearby to pull my polyester jacket over my head. Great plan, but also had the effect of charging me up with several thousand volts of static electricity. Next, I reach out and touch the tap.  ZAP goes a great bolt of electricity from my right hand to the tap, YANK goes my arm, and YIKES goes my yell. Followed by a florid stream of colourful words I won't repeat here.

The immediate effect is of course several minutes of woeful moaning and groaning, and the horrified looks on everybody's faces.

The longer term effect is perhaps more serious. It means you begin consciously and unconsciously protecting your arm. You begin holding your arm in close to your body to reduce the possibility of future Zaps. You restrict shoulder movement, and thereby maybe worsen the freezing effect.

One symptom of Frozen Shoulder is the loss of fluid in the joint. This increases inflammation, joint lining damage, and subsequent scaring.

Now I'm actively trying to ensure I use my arm instead of leaving it permanently pinned to my side.
And while doing that I'm now doubly careful when taking off polyester clothing.

More Zap stories to come.

More Needles

There are so many fake medical remedies out there, I'm quite wary about what I would use.

Chiropractic medicine may have benefits but some of the claims about what it can do seem over the top to me.  Reiki and homeopathy are right out in my book, as are iridology and reflexology. Herbal medicine needs to be looked at carefully because of the unregulated doses of the active ingredients and lack of rigorous testing in many cases.

Of the alternative medicines I think I'd be most inclined to accept benefits of acupuncture, but I'm not sure why.  Here is a link to an ABC story about some acupuncture research that says in regard to back pain

After eight weeks, 60% of the patients who received acupuncture of some form reported significant improvement in their ability to function compared 37% of those who got standard medical care alone.

That sounds promising. It also says that in this study there was no significant difference between needles and toothpicks being used.  As far as I can tell science does not yet have a good explanation for acupuncture.

While we're on the ABC, here's a story from them about Frozen Shoulder.

Today I feel I'm making no progress with this condition. I'm about to purchase the electronic version of the book from FrozenShoulder.com. Here's a link to an article by the man behind this, Simeon Niel-Asher.

Pin Cushion

This is a first for me. I never had acupuncture before, but for this I thought I'd give it a try. It's a slightly out of character since I'm fairly conservative with this sort of thing.  Outside my day job I produce a science radio program, and write occasional columns for a national broadsheet newspaper.

I was referred to Feng by someone who recommended him for this condition. The first thing I wanted to see was whether and how he would assess me. Would he just assume Frozen Shoulder, and move straight to the needles? What other treatments would he apply?

The first thing he did was ask me a few basic questions (I was already certain of the diagnosis). Then he held my arm and moved it through its range in each direction: up, forward, backward.

The treatment each time begins with an assessment of my current state. How far can I lift my arm to the front, to the side, and behind me.  Then he loosens things up by swinging it in all directions.

Stretching is next, and this is where the fun starts. He pushes my arm to the limit of movement, and then a bit; sometimes with a rocking motion, sometimes with me squeezing his hand. This hurts.

Then I get the needles, which mostly don't hurt much. But sometimes a particular one hits a sensitive spot, and that's very uncomfortable.

He puts sunglasses on me, and aims a huge laser gun at my joint. It has a red glow coming out of it, but no obvious Star Wars laser beam. To be honest, I can't see how this bit works.

Now all kitted up sitting in a chair with about 10 needles in my neck, shoulder, and elbow, I sit and wait for about 20 minutes. Sometimes he reappears and re-aims the gun--oops, I mean laser.

He takes the needles out, and moves onto more serious stretching and manipulation. This really hurts, and I must breathe deeply and consciously to bear the pain.

Finally it's all over and I'm free to go, relieved that we're done for the week. I generally feel the pain of the treatment for 15-30 minutes.

I really have no idea whether the needles do anything, but I'm in no doubt the manipulation loosens my arm for at least a while.

More on this to come.

Ways to Get Zapped #1

This is the first of an occasional series on how to zap your frozen arm. The zap is triggered by something you don't expect. Something that startles you, and by reflex you whip your arm in one direction or another.

The result is jarring, searing pain that lasts about 5 minutes. Your arm does not like being jerked like this. Not recommended.

Zap #1  The Bouncy Dog
Occurs when you decide to lie on the loungeroom floor to do some exercises, and excitable puppy thinks it'd be fun to jump on your face. Without thinking you yank your injured arm up to protect yourself. Rusty knife jabs let you know immediately this was a bad idea.

Now with Bonus Rotator Cuff!

The evolution of my condition is becoming a little clearer. Apparently I have some rotator cuff damage as well. That's what I did when I threw the sponge ball.

The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that hold the top bone (humerus) into the joint. It's these that contribute the amazingly flexible mechanism that allows us to swing our arms in all sorts of directions. Rotator cuff injuries seem pretty common, and they can take a while to heal. In my case I think it was the triggering injury for Frozen Shoulder.

Today I also found a web site that rounded shoulders may also increase your risk. By chance, I did have a therapeutic massage a few months ago, and the masseur commented on my rounded shoulders. She said she could tell because my shoulder blades don't sit flat on my back.

The final straw was after my injury I started using free weights. But I think I was a bit too enthusiastic with them, and instead aggravated things.

So the sequence is something like this:

April 2009 - massage, noted rounded shoulders
May - threw sponge ball, damaged rotator cuff
June - desert motorbike trip
July - weights; onset of FS
7 Sep - today, probably end of Freezing stage.

I've just found a web site where they claim to have a therapy that offers rapid healing. I am wary since there are many fakes out there. I will research a bit more, and record here how it pans out. However it looks reasonably promising.

See http://www.frozenshoulder.com/

Cheating

 

This is what Frozen Should does to you. 

The human body is an amazingly intricate device of interconnected parts. When Frozen Shoulder kicks in, you can no longer swing your arm through the full range of movement. To compensate you lift the entire shoulder. Check the height differences of the tip of the shoulder. See the curvature of the spine. Imagine the extra stresses transmitted to the surrounding muscle.

So while the immediate effect is in the shoulder itself, it ripples outwards causing knock on problems.

This photo shows what Feng calls 'cheating'. It shows how you make up for what the joint is supposed to do through contortions in other places.