Shoulder problems

[TheHammer]

Just though i would see what the peanut gallery had to say. I just got back from a visit with my osteopath because of some shoulder pain. He says it is an inflamed tendon. Told me to ice it and gave me an rx for anti- inflammatory, and give it a rest. He said if it didn't start improving within a week he wanted to give me a cortisone shot. I want to avoid that right? cortisone will actually weaken connective tissues right? Just curios if anyone has had an experience with this...

[Rich McClain]

Just my two cents... Cortisone is a short term attempt to fix. After about 8 shots, there is no benefit. I have no medical or personal experience with Cortisone.

[TheHammer]

That is what i was thinking, gonna stick with ice and rest for right now. Don't want to wear out before season gets going

[chirolifter]

What part of the shoulder hurts, front, side or rear? Your doing the right thing.

[TheHammer]

It hurts on the front, right where your chest bicep and delt all tie in.

[bhuntley]

I have had an issue in the same area or there abouts... I can tell you a couple of things; Jump stretch bands or work out bands, Grip them with both arms overhead and pull down with your arms locked or just bent slightly and finish the movement so that the band is just behind your neck and your arms are in a kind of crucifix position. You can adjust the tension on the joint by shortening up your grip on the band. The beauty of these are you can do them at home while watching tv or whatever, I usually do 10 - 15 reps rest about 5 minutes and do another set. Another is with your arms straight (gripping the bands) out in front of you and pulling your arms out to the side to the same crucufix position with the band ending up aginst your chest. Last thing, if it is a strained tendon you may need to create some flexibility in the joint. My Chiropractor showed me an exercise for that; stand facing a wall and reach out so your fingers just touch it, then "finger walk" your arm up the wall, stepping forward as you do until your arm is fully extended straight up and your nose almost touching the wall. Then do the same but sideways (perpendicular to the wall) hold for about 10 - 30 seconds at the top on each one. I know these helped me quite a bit.

my .02

[Clancelt]

After going through a inflamed joint (knee) and a destroyed joint (foot) here is what I have learned about those shots, and from the advice of a very good sports doctor. The cort shot works by killing off your autoimmune response, thus the swelling goes down. This allows the joint to heal only if the problem is it can't heal because the inflammation is aggravating it. My knee for instance had an inflamed chunk of muscle/connective tissue that was getting pinched in the knee cap so it wasn't healing. The swelling would go down a little, I would walk and aggravate it, then it would swell back up. Endless cycle and it could eventually mess it up for good. A shot brought the swelling down, and then it healed fine on it's own. My foot on the other hand, the joint was already gone and the doc said the shots would help prolong the time I could walk on it without surgery. They would however break down the joint, or more precisely I would continue to use a damaged joint until it fell apart. He said had the joint not been in such bad shape to begin with, he would of never used so much cortisone.

So long story short, it seems to be ok if the problem is swelling won't let it heal. If you get the shot and then don't take it easy on the joint because it feels great, and it will. Well, you just be doing more damage and sooner or later you'll really mess it up. I would stick with therapy if it seems to help and take it easy. Use the shot if you think reducing the swelling would help you heal faster.