The Conclusion: Shoulder Tendinitis

So went to see a  physiotherapist last Wednesday and he did an assessment and thinks I have tendinitis in my left shoulder.

The assessment, which involved him asking lots of questions and having me move my arm about in all sorts of directions, killed! My shoulder was incredibly painful for the rest of the day and night, and I slept like crap. I actually took some acetaminophen, which I haven't taken in ages because I just couldn't take the pain (I'm already on so many freakin' drugs, I don't really want to take more, particularly any which might, might upset my stomach but there you go...). I also iced my shoulder on and off all evening as instructed.

Luckily I got in for a treatment appointment Thursday morning. I was given some ultrasound, then heat. Then the physio manipulated my shoulder a bunch, basically jiggling it up and down a lot in the socket, which, surprisingly, didn't hurt at all, and massaged it very  lightly, then iced it. It felt a whole lot better after that.

This left shoulder has always been weaker. In fact, as I've mentioned before, my whole left side is weaker, since my right side is my dominant one. And the shoulder has caused me some very slight pain before, ironically enough, during the longer periods of time when I haven't done any strength training! But this amount of pain is very unusual and I have been doing strength training, so I can only suspect that RA has something to do with it. Call me suspicious, call me wrong, but there you go...

I've been icing the shoulder every couple of hours (when I remember!), as instructed, and I go back for another physio appointment tomorrow (Monday).

I hope we can nip this thing in the bud, so I can get back to normal life – and normal workouts!