Wellness

[hckynutjohn]

@FLgardener 

I am glad to hear your shoulder eventually healed for you. Nothing wrong with treating a Rotator cuff this way. Depending on the grade of the tear, grade 1-2-3-4, many respond well when you get the RICE treatment started as soon as possible.

I have torn my Right Rotator Cuff twice over the years. It is the same one I separated many years ago playing hockey. Think that may have played a factor in my subsequent tears, but my Ortho Friend tells me no.

I called him at home on my 1st tear. He told me pretty much what I should do as soon as possible after all my injuries. Grab the ice/more ice/and more ice. He got me in to see him the next day in his office. He decided it best to do an MRI to see the location and the degree of my tear. He said some grade 3 tears require surgery, but he thought I could do it with Rehab, and it did.

His group facilities have an MRI and Ultrasound facility in part of their offices. He told me to stick with ice and keep it in a sling when not icing it. He also told me to see his PT partner for 6 visits.

Since I have a pretty good sized gym with lots of equipment, I pretty much wanted him to set up a program that would give me the best results, and with luck, heal a little faster. Like you, it was several months. Had it been a lower grade, he told me some heal more quickly. 

Still try to be a little more cautious when making throwing type movements. Not sure it will ever feel as prior to these 2 tears.

Ice is by far my first step, even when ice skating and my broken ribs and broken nose awhile back. Pretty standard with joint injuries to keep down the swelling, and nose to clot the blood to ease and stop the  bleeding.

With most injuries, the sticking with home therapy, is a must after any serious type of injury. Regardless of seeing a Physical Therapist, most of the repair and healing, goes much better when doing it more than just the regular 3 times a week PT visits.

hckynut  🇺🇸

[FLgardener]

@hckynutjohn , My injury was so bad, I feared I needed surgery. Then mind over matter kicked in. I get an adrenaline rush and utilize the mind power and if it works, it works. I knew instantly to apply ice. I slept on the floor the first day, where I had dragged myself.

Long story short, I survived and thrived based on my instincts. As I have said before, I do not advise my ways. I just offer up what is possible.

My favorite physical therapy exercise (which I devised for my own self based on internet research) was kneeling on something on my good side, where I could dangle the afflicted limb, hold a weight in that hand and swing it around in at first a tiny circumference, increasing in increments.

[jubilant]

Very few people get out of life with some sort of illness and pain. I have had my share and there was one time when I asked God to let me die. I was under heavy anesthesia  and I even said to the nurses and my daughter, "please let me die"....on paper that is....because I was unable to speak .....but I could write. Well, I'm glad he didn't answer that particular request! I was embarrassed when I became more coherent again and the nurse assured me that she had heard worse. Then they put me under again because my BP shot up so high. 

What I am getting at, is I think it's a mind, body, and soul thing....because I did get my courage back...even though the next few months were quite painful.    

[qualitygal]

@FLgardener  My experience is similar to yours. 

[qualitygal]

@jubilant  I'm so glad you're still here with us.

[hckynutjohn]

@FLgardener 

We think similarly, but not the same. My being involved in athletics most of my adult life, may be part of the difference. While I believe that the mind/body connection is real, for me it is not the fastest, nor best way, for my recovering from my injuries.

How I feel physically, has at times, little to do with being fully recovered. I learned the hard way finding that out, and on more than just 1 injury. 

I also know from going to many Clinics over the years given by many different experts in the Sports Medicine Physiology Field. That joints heal differently, and the way they heal can be vastly different. That meaning, a good way, a bad way, or somewhere in between. 

I go by what I have learned from many of these experts, most who have worked with world class athletes. Healing time has always been important to me, for a couple differing reasons.

Having worked a physical job my 33 years in a factory, all jobs required heavy lifting in 100°+ temperatures. Most years required lifting 60-80lb reels of wire above my shoulder height. Not a good thing when you have a shoulder injury. Waist high, or lower, not too much of a problem, it had more to with my grip, than shoulder/traps, or arm muscle strengths.

Not being able to do that for an extended amount of time?  Could have cost me that job, and moved me to a much lower paying one, which most were assembly line work, which is far and away the worst type of factory work, monotony!

While shoulder injuries did not keep me from running, they did keep me from playing hockey. Not being able to move a shoulder freely, is not conducive to using a hockey stick. Nor is getting checked by an opposing player in helping healing, regardless of what my mind is telling me. It is also a whole lot more painful, plus it slows down recovery.

There are few exercises I do, or have done,  where I have not added my own improvising, so they work better for me. There was no internet back then, so my improvisations, were devised by me trying my own variations. Some worked, many did not.

While we think similarly, our ways of getting to our goals, are much different. Our reasons also are close, but still far apart.

Don't know your age, but my learning was way before there were even running shoes made, and long before "stretching and warming up" were done by even the pro athletes. So thought and improvising were pretty much how I learned.

Their views back then were mostly, "we get playing ready by playing'. Now! They train year around, if they want to keep their jobs on a team, or win in "single" type athletic competitions, running/tennis etc? Chances of "doing it by doing it", does not equal winning, or even coming close.

Always like reading your posts in this type of topic.

When it comes to life/death health issues? That is where the mind can completely dictate, so far as will I recover, not when.

Pessimism in those times, from my experiences, can be one's worse enemy. Here I am talking about living or dying, not how and when you will recover. Had enough personal experience to understand what Optimism versus Pessimism is in reality, not in a virtual world.

Enjoy your weekend now,

hckynut  🇺🇸

[hckynutjohn]

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@jubilant wrote:

Very few people get out of life with some sort of illness and pain. I have had my share and there was one time when I asked God to let me die. I was under heavy anesthesia  and I even said to the nurses and my daughter, "please let me die"....on paper that is....because I was unable to speak .....but I could write. Well, I'm glad he didn't answer that particular request! I was embarrassed when I became more coherent again and the nurse assured me that she had heard worse. Then they put me under again because my BP shot up so high. 

What I am getting at, is I think it's a mind, body, and soul thing....because I did get my courage back...even though the next few months were quite painful.    

@jubilant 

I have been in similar situations when it comes to pain, mental and physical, though not the same.

While there might have been brief moments for me having similar thoughts, I never thought or said, "let me die", quite the opposite. My thoughts were the light at the end of the tunnel, not THE LIGHT! 

Ever returning to a life that I considered normal, was at times, like a dream to me. I was never in a position when I could not speak, but doing so added to my not so good situations.

While I believe in a higher place than this life, we think differently in that respect. As long days went by my thoughts were more on how long it would take me to get back to what I consider living my type of life.

To me there is no such thing as embarrassment when it has anything to do with hospitalization. It is what it is!

Like you it was a whole lot of months of hard work, both mentally and physically. My outlook was always, 1 day at a time. It was over a period of 14 years of experiencing 1 event after another.

Close to recovery, back in the hospital, for the same or different serious medical issues. Never had a chance to fully recover to what I consider full mental and physical fitness during all those years.

Throw in my wife having over 13 major surgeries, and it made those years even longer. However, the good thing? We were never in the hospital at the same time, and that was certainly a positive.

I get what you are saying, and I think experiencing it, is the only true way of fully understanding it.

Best wishes to you, enjoy your weekend.

hckynut  🇺🇸

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