Does two weeks of 1 hour physical therapy, 3 x per week count as a workout? it’s all weights….
oh, yeah, so where have i been? not working out much. at all. I have been experiencing some problems with my shoulders… the story goes like this: When I was a teenager, I had occasional pain in my shoulders during swim training. I didn’t make a fuss about it, cause i was 17 and that’s simply the way I am. No fuss. Well, at the end of May after about 1 month of solid training for the triathlon the pain in my left shoulder came back. It’s a weird pain. Not sharp, not acute, more dull and annoying than anything else. I could tell that it was not muscular. I said to myself, “oh no, not my swimming shoulder, hopefully it’ll be okay through the race.” So, I went on about my business. Then I got in that darned car accident. I didn’t notice anything funny at the scene of the accident, except the typical whip lash, and I figured that would go away. Well, later that night and for the next few evenings the pain in my shoulders returned and was worse. I think the shock from the impact exasperated the problem I was already experiencing. Well, then like a dummy I swam that following Saturday afternoon. A long workout too. And guess what! I could barely sleep that night! Argh, it hurt to just pull the covers over my body. I took one of my dad’s celebrex the next day, and that barely cut the pain. So, I took myself to a sports med. doctor. He did an x-ray of my shoulder (left) and said that I have a minor tear in the cartilage and that I have multi-directional instability/laxity, and prescribed 4 weeks of PT, 2-3x per week.
The PT said no swimming. Wah! Oh, wait let me back up. The weekend prior to my first PT, I did a workout. Ugh! Wouldn’t you know, that suddenly the pain was in my right shoulder. Now get this, while the pain in the left has subdued, the pain in my right has sustained since that Sunday. (um, June 29th).
We’ve been doing resistance training with bands, some little free-weight exercises, simple push-ups… ha ha! my favorite is the “punching” exercise! Using the resistance band, of course.
Anyway, today I told her that the pain in my right is still there, and has NOT curbed. So, she applied some pain/anti-inflammatory medication using an iontophoresis patch. Crazy! That was weird.
It’s an oblong patch, with a plastic gadget in the middle that contains two watch-sized batteries, then she connected some contraption, that looked like a blood-sugar tester, for about 4 minutes. Then I had to leave the patch on for 2 hours. Honestly, I don’t notice a difference.
Can I get some relief!?!
After PT, I went to the park and ran. Oh, and ate lunch with Argo. 
If the iontophoresis does help at all after 3-4 visits, it is time to switch therapists or techniques. As a physical therapist, I do not continue to use that type of a modality without results. Some manual or hands on therapy might be indicated.