Golfers Edge

Archive for June, 2008

Hurdles To Playing Golf

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

golf fitness physical therapy

Being an older dad with very young kids I do try fairly hard to try to stay fit, active and in shape so that I can still play with my kids as they get older. I also enjoy a game of golf, a good walk ruined as they say. I’m not a great player as I never get to play as often as I would like but I do enjoy it, so was really hacked off when I developed a shoulder injury that made me stop playing. It was more complicated than that:

My shoulder problem turned out to be a torn rotator cuff
stopped me doing any form of activity
was painful when I ran or walked, even though I am right handed
any movement could cause serious pain in my left shoulder

If I forgot for a moment and made a sudden movement I could end up crying with pain. I can remember exactly how I did it. I was being my usual impatient self and trying to lift some furniture on my own rather than waiting for someone to come and help, felt a pop in my shoulder and that was that. Shoulder messed up| The next day I woke up with a painful shoulder and it just got worse as each day went by.

Reaching above my shoulder, reaching out for anything was impossible. I couldn’t reach behind me. I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t get comfortable and I couldn’t do a thing with the kids. Golf was just not going to happen for the forseeable future. So I took myself off to the doctors who sent me to a shoulder specialist. He diagnosed my torn rotator cuffand confirmed it with an MRI scan. Your shoulder joint is a simple ball and socket joint. Unlike the hip, the socket is made up of cartilage rather than bone and doesn’t grip the bone of the arm. Instead, a group of four muscles help to hold the arm in place and stabilise the shoulder joint. These make up the rotator cuff. What I had done was tear one of these muscles which caused inflammation. Because all the muscles fit snuggly together any inflammation can cause pressure and pain.

The muscle that I had torn is called the supraspinatus. I had manged to tear a tendon that runs under my collar bone or clavicle and the end of my shoulder blade or scapula. Because it became inflammed, every time that I moved in a certain way it got pinched or impinged pinched and was aggravated. Surgery was recommended to shave off part of my collar bone to release the trapped tendon and let it to heal without any more damage. It all sounded very easy but I was still a bit nervous.

Being in the UK we often have to wait for surgery so I took the time to do some research on the subject while I waited for my surgery date. Having studied my injury extensively I finally discovered that

most rotator cuff problems are treated with simple physical therapy
even a torn rotator cuff can be cured in this way, as long as it is only a partial tear
you need to rest the joint at first to let the inflammation to calm down
treat it with anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and using ice packs
once things have reduced you can start gentle exercises aimed at building up and strengthening the rotator cuff muscles

In just six weeks my shoulder was pain free and the movement had returned to near normal. A few more weeks saw me return to full fitness. I have postponed the surgery and may well be cancelling it altogether if I remain pain free. In the meantime I am back playing golf, still losing but hey, I do have a bad shoulder!

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