 Hi, I'm Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical Therapy. So many people have pain in their shoulders when they try to do a pushup and for a lot of people that ends up being the end of all pushups forever. Because ultimately people end up in one of two camps, you're either in the camp that if an exercise hurts, “I just don't do it.” Or you're in the camp of “I'm going to push all the way through the pain because pain is just weakness” and I can make it through that. I’m a little bit more in the gray area.
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 Hi, I'm Dr. Molly with your Goals Physical Therapy. If you're about to go in for a shoulder surgery, then you've more than likely been told what you need. You're going to be wearing a sling for some amount of time. Some times for 4 weeks some times for six weeks depending on the surgery. Then you're going to need to ice because of the discomfort. You're going to have your pre-op appointments. You’re going to have post-op appointments. And you're probably planning out how people are going to help you take care of yourself and how you’re going to get from place to place.
Well, I have two tips that I always give people that they should have in their post surgery bag. I thought I would share those today. They're a little bit lighthearted, but who doesn't want to be as comfortable as possible after having shoulder surgery.  Hi, I'm Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical Therapy. Let's talk about stopping that muscle spasm that happens between your shoulder blades. So the other day I got a frantic phone call from somebody who rolled over in bed, super common roll over in bed, and was woken up instantly. All of a sudden she had a huge muscle spasm that was attacking a nerve and it was sending radiating pain up into her head. Every time she moved her head she had severe pain. She couldn't find a comfortable position. She was stuck. She was waking up every couple of hours because of giant shooting pain from her shoulder blade up to her head. Her head could be up too much. She couldn't lay on her side. It was just miserable. She took ibuprofen, she tried using heat. She tried sitting up in a chair. She tried everything that she could think of but she was just miserable all night. So when she calls me, she wants to know how to make this better. She was throwing out any and all ideas of things she thought she could do at that moment and asking what I thought. I thought it'd be good to make a video and kind of talk, what I told her.
What do you do when you wake up with searing pain that prevents you from being able to move your head or your shoulder throughout your day without dramatic sharp pain? I'm Dr. Molly, with Your Goals Physical Therapy, let's talk about that burning pain between your shoulder blades or maybe it's right underneath your shoulder blade. You can feel a knot there and you just want to dig the sucker out, but it just keeps coming back every month like clock work.
When you go to your massage therapist, it gets better for a little bit, but the knot and pain comes back after 3- 4 weeks just like clockwork. Then you're grabbing your shoulder blade like the pain never left. It feels like if somebody could just take their elbow and dig into just the right spot it would finally just disappear. But meanwhile, it hurts when you move your arm a certain way, or if you have a stand in the same position at your desk. It's just constantly talking to you every day without fail. And it's progressively getting worse. How frustrating! If you ever wonder, “Is this really just from how I'm holding my stress?”, or “Is this something that I'm gonna be dealing with forever.” That's what I wanna talk about. Your stress can definitely cause things in your body to hurt, but many times when talking about the burning pain in your upper back or shoulder blade, it's actually caused by your posture. About a week ago I was driving my kids to school. As I was getting ready to make the left to get out of our neighborhood,look right then left. When I moved from right to left my neck made a loud cracking sound. The crack didn’t hurt but boy was it loud. Then later that day my neck felt like it needed to be popped again. This told me that I've been slacking on my neck exercises.
My work and personal life can get very stressful at times. The kids will have multiple school projects, which of course happen the same time my work picks ups. It's hard to maintain ideal posture while meeting deadlines, let alone make the time to exercise and stretch daily. If you are wondering why I care about my neck cracking occasionally. I know that even if the crack or pop doesn’t hurt it’s telling me that my neck is not stable. If my neck just cracked once then I wouldn't be worried. However, the fact that I was getting the sense that my neck needed to be cracked several times in one day tells me my neck strength is not good. Over time if your neck is not strong it will develop arthritis or you will develop a herniated disc. The crack is simply the sound of your neck bone adjusting itself back into place, so the sound is not “bad”. But it tells you one of your neck muscles is pulling that bone out of place several times throughout the day. That constant shifting is what causes the wear and tear on your neck. I got an interesting call from a nice woman named Lisa. Lisa is in her early 40s and I got permission to share her story. She called me after seeing one of my ads because she was worried about her shoulder. She just couldn’t move it normally. The straw that broke the camel's back was when her husband tossed a water bottle to her and she just couldn’t get her arm to lift high enough or fast enough to catch the bottle. She was so embarrassed when the bottle hit her, not to mention a little hurt.
Over the phone Lisa told me she had been dealing with her arm just not moving for months assuming eventually it would just work itself out. But after the water bottle incident she realized the wait and see approach wasn’t working. I told Lisa it was good she could move her arm and that it didn’t hurt but without seeing her I could tell her much else. I really had to move her arm and see how her joint felt before I could give her much information. Hi Dr. Molly
I have a question about my shoulder. I lift weights a few times a week. Recently, I haven’t been able to lift my right shoulder as high as my left shoulder. I wouldn’t say it hurts but it doesn’t feel normal. Google tells me I have a shoulder impingement. Will this heal on its own? I don't remember doing anything to hurt my shoulder, I just don’t want it to get worse. Pat
Why do I feel a constant need to pop my neck?
The short answer is that you have a stability issue. A woman called me concerned about a constant need to pop her neck. She'd been doing it for years, even though EVERYONE told her it was bad ;). She never worried about it before because after the pop she always felt better. However, a few days before our phone call she popped her neck then suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot down her neck into her shoulder. Then she wasn't able to move her neck to the right without severe pain. Most people that come to see me are looking for answers about a pain that is stopping them from their favorite activities. Many people are putting off seeing a Physical Therapist or another medical professional because they are afraid of being told they will need a surgery, or they will simply be given medication then dismissed, or they will be told the pain is just from being old and nothing can resolve the discomfort.
We have all woken up with a stiffness neck. You know that moment when you lift your head to a sudden sharp pain in your neck that shoots up to your head and down between your shoulders every time you turn you head. You dread the next day or two because you know it's going to be a struggle driving, sitting at your computer, or workout. Check out the video below. Dr. Molly demonstrates a home remedy and how to stop this pain quickly.
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WE HELP ACTIVE ADULTS OVERCOME THEIR ACHES AND PAINS TO GET THEM BACK TO THEIR FAVORITE ACTIVITIES WITHOUT MEDICATION, INJECTIONS OR SURGERIES.
Dr. Molly McDonald
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