On the 4th of November, I went for my next appointment with the Ortho. He had good and bad news.
- The good news, the X-Ray's were looking good!
- The bad news, it was time to start Physical Therapy :-(
After review, he said the bone is looking good. It is being held together and healing quite nicely. In the image, if you look closely, you can see the spider-webs of white lines.
Muscle tone, however; as expected after being in a sling for 3 Weeks, was a different story. As you can see in the image, the humerus is hanging a little bit out of the pocket where it is supposed to be (the drawn lines should match together). So, a bit of Physical Therapy is needed.
Since my wife's degree is in Kinesiology, and her Internship and first job were at a hospital's exercise centre, she did this type of work on a regular basis.
Now, I am unsure if it was a good idea to let my wife be my PT. Initially, I wondered if she would be hard on me or take it easy on me. I often times, think that she is/was being extra hard on me, but I have talked to people about their experiences with PT, and their experiences sound similar. Of course, the results can not be disputed. I am lifting my arm above my head now, placing glasses in the cupboards without too much difficulty, and driving right-handed (with the left at the ready). There are still certain points of motion that are harder than others. For instance, the height of a keyboard/mouse while sitting at the desk, leaned back a bit, is still a bit painful from a muscle perspective.
The regimen I have been doing, is very close to what can be found at this page. See under `XI. Management: Conservative Therapy` section `D. Excercise Program` parts 1c, 2, and 3.
The main excercises that seemed to help the best were the Circles of Greater Diameter, Internal Rotation, and Abduction via Wall Walking. Examples of these can be found with some creative Google searches.
Overall, I think this is progressing a lot better than I had hoped. This phase is often painful from the muscle work, but as long as I don't skip my morning NSAID (on purpose for a day, to gauge the pain levels) it is tolerable. This week, it has been fairly tolerable even without the Advil, but I still find myself favouring it at times.
Well, that's it for today. I will hopefully post an update after the next Ortho appointment on the 16th.
L8R's, Joe
