My left shoulder was a bit sore at the start of swimming club last night (but once warmed up, it was fine). Now it's crunchy and sore. It doesn't like raising my arm, and there's some tenderness down the front/side of my arm just below the shoulder joint.
What have I done, and how do I fix it?
Dear Simon,
As has been mentioned, it might be frozen shoulder, which seems to be a pretty indistinct subject. I had such a diagnosis a few years ago. I could not raise my arm, like you, to the extent that making a left turn signal was really difficult physically, not just in terms of pain. A physio. to whom I was referred (himself a keen cyclist) told me that my shoulder joints weren't anywhere near their correct configuration, possibly because of years hunched up, either over a bike or a guitar (I teach guitar-playing).
He gave me some exercises, involving a huge rubber band-type thing, which I did for a bit and I had a course of sessions booked, which I was unable to take up because of a change in my work pattern. Nevertheless the problem did go away after a few months, so I hope you will be encouraged by this. But I sympathise with the discomfort, greatly: mine was so bad that it used to wake me up. I had thought that it might have been as a result of sleeping so heavily on one side (I was taking a lot of morphine for a back injury which laid me up for some months) but apparently it is a "use" injury, which can disappear as mysteriously as it arrives. I hope yours disappears soon!
