PT 18 Weeks PO...P O Day 128

I reported my physical therapy at 6 weeks and again at 12 weeks. So here I am at 18 weeks post op. I am no longer in formal physical therapy but I continue to keep up some of the exercises. My shoulder certainly feels like it would stiffen up if I did not keep after it. Even just sleeping overnight makes it noticeably less limber the next morning so first thing I do when I awaken is stretches.

I am following up with a Home Exercise Program. This is typical for a rTSA patient at sixteen weeks or four months post op. I do my exercises in spurts during the day, not all at once like when I was in formal PT. I have two goals: continue the progress I have made in AROM (active range of motion) that leads to normal function of my operated arm in real life and improve strength in the operated arm. I find the AROM progressing very well. I have a way to go in the increase strength department. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, ROM improves in the first six months post op, while strength is built up in the second six months post op. (According to my web reading, for what it is worth.)

For ROM, I use simple pulleys. I do 3 minutes of pulleys when I get up in the AM. Three or four times a day I do three sets of ten supine flexion with a wand and three sets of ten standing up flexion with a wand. I try to work in a set or two of abduction with wand and a set or two of external/internal rotation with a wand but for some reason I am not as consistent in doing those. I do the flexion slide up the wall thing in the shower, always.

For strength, I use a two pound weight. You would think it weighed twenty pounds! I do two or three sets of simple curls. That is getting easier. And I do two sets of one arm military presses. That is hard! I'd like to jump up to five pounds but it just isn't happening. I guess I am using what I read as an excuse to focus on ROM for now and will work on strengthening exercises later. I am not doing any stretch band work. Maybe next month. It's just too hard right now.

Finally, I am increasingly active in housework and garden clean up. Surely I get some credit for that! Although it is said you don't burn many calories in ordinary housework. My arm is still pretty tight. But I have very good ROM and hope to maintain it. I constantly remind myself to use my operated arm to reach and lift. It's easy to forget to use it. My arm does still hurt but less and less as time passes. I can't complain.

I am only doing exercises prescribed by my therapist who knows my situation.

I think it is important to follow your own therapist's advice and program.

http://youtu.be/vWz9VN40nCA