Second Prolo Treatment for Shoulder/Back

So Yesterday was my second visit with Dr. Fullerton. When I saw him he had me perform the same functional tests as last time, but this time I was able to pass a couple of the tests! Progress has been made! I Still have a pit in my left hip capsule, and there was still a lot of work to be done on my back.

In fact, more issues were found with my back muscles than last time. I don’t know if it was crossfit or

Band-aids where I got
poked. Also, I feel like
 my back is  really
asymmetrical

high school wrestling, but something really messed me up. Thankfully, Doc keeps searching so that’s why he keeps finding things. I am very impressed with his thoroughness. They call this the “old couch new carpet” problem. When you get new carpet (fix one issue) you suddenly notice what you once thought was a perfectly good couch (some other body part) isn’t actually all that great (there’s an issue/pain).

 After he addressed issues with my back muscles the first time others issues became apparent. I didn’t really notice the pains just standing around, but when he poked and prodded me there were definite spots of tenderness that weren’t there before. Leaving the office, I was actually feeling pretty good. I felt stiff as all get out, and I definitely didn’t feel normal, but I have felt worse. I chalk it up to taking a Tylenol 3 with codine beforehand.

 At the end I commented about how Dr. Fullerton hadn’t addressed my labrum yet, and he said that he didn’t treat my labrum last time, and wasn’t planning on doing so since it didn’t seem to be causing me issues, combined with the fact that the tech report on my MRI was a little wishy-washy. I felt a little hesitant about this, but I’m not really in the position to boss a doctor around, especially while on painkillers.

Because he addressed so many muscles/points around my spine, both lower and upper back, I feel pretty stiff while typing this. I can’t really lean over to get anything, and even standing causes some issues. Thankfully I have a wonderful wife who is helping me out while I lay on the couch with a heat pad on my back as I watch the NCAA tournament. It could be worse.

Phase Two of Rehab from Prolotherapy

8 weeks out from the first prolo treatment. I can see why Doc wanted to space these treatments out 9 weeks apart.  I'm still feeling everything... settle.  I now really don't feel any of the pain that I felt after the treatment when I hold things, and I'm still not cracking my neck like I used to, so that seems to indicate progress is being made.  I've started working on strength and range of motion.  I think, for my shoulder muscles, using the Indian Clubs is pretty much ideal. It works on strengthening and stretching at the same time, plus it's pretty fun.  In addition to using Indian clubs (I use them as a warm up) I am now doing an upper body day and a lower body day, here's the program:

Upper Body (A)

DB Bench press (5 X 10)

Lat pulls (5 X 10)

DB Rows (3 X 12)

Tricep extentions (3 X 12)

Bicep Curls (3 X 12)

Shrugs (3 X 12)

Shoulder Raises (3 X 12)

Lower Body (B)

KB stiff leg deadlifts (5 X 10)

KB Box squats (light) (5 X 10)

DB Lunges (3 X 12)

Leg Curls (3 X 12)

Leg Extentions (3 X 12)

Note: one thing that is important to note is that I don't have any movement where I elevate my shoulder past 90 degrees. I'm still not ready for overhead movements like incline bench or overhead press.

The frequency of my workouts is Day 1 is conditioning (sprints), Day 2 is A, Day 3 is B, rest day, then repeat. It's three days on, one day off, like crossfit.

Leg day killed me, especially the lunges. On the second set my hammies cramped up so I just stopped.

I've noticed now when doing bench press I experience a clicking in the very front part of my shoulder. It isn't accompanied by any pain, but this might be important because Dr. Fullerton thought there might be something wrong with the front part of my shoulder. Who knows.

I'm still feeling all the normal pangs, but then all the pangs are not bothering me as much as they used to. I feel healthier. I feel like I'm better. I actually feel like I can get back to 100%, something I haven't experienced in over a decade.

Six weeks out from first treatment

So it's been two weeks of doing the scapular stabilization exercises. After the first day of exercise, my muscles were sore/unhappy for about 5 minutes, but then everything went back to normal. I get the same experience after each workout, but each time it's to a lesser extent.  These past couple of times I've had no increase in pain after working out, so I think now I'm going to start getting back to strength/ROM, so that means I'll get to work with Indian clubs, in addition to some other dumb bell/barbell exercises.

I think I've been babying my body for a while now. I've been really conservative just because I want to heal up ASAP.  But when I expressed my concerns to the Dr. he just said to let pain be your guide and to keep moving.


Letting pain be my guide has been difficult, because right now I'm back to being in pain all the time.  The amount of pain/discomfort that I'm in is less than before I started this, but it's still there. So knowing that my muscles are still frayed, is it ok to use them, to push them? It seems from Doc's advice that it is ok.

The pain/discomfort that’s going on in my back is... evolving. It used to be just this big knot of pain, but now I can feel each muscle separately and feel the pain in each one.  It's like a room of people has gone from everyone screaming and you can't hear what they're saying to everyone is talking loudly and you can now make out each conversation. Hopefully after the second treatment it will be reduced to a quiet murmur.

Concerning my hip. It's been... interesting. When I mentioned to one PT that I still experience hip pain despite the fact that I haven't squatted/deadlifting for six weeks he asked if I've considered the possibility that it's a sports hernia. I have, in the past, been given that diagnosis, but I think that is not what I have.  The main reason being that there are times where I do not experience any pain. I think because there are things that I can do to relieve the pain, it's not a sports hernia. I may be wrong, I'm not an expert on the subject matter. However, I figure it my groin pain is stemming from some type of structural damage then it should be fairly constant. That's how it was before I had PRP injections to treat the torn labrum in my hip (constant pain no matter what I did).

As of right now, when my groin/pectineus acts up I also have a tight TFL and possibly glute medius and piraformis.  I roll out on a soft ball, and it is amazingly painful but when I get that release in the back of my hip, the pain in the front seems to go away, or at least diminish greatly.

So it seems that my current hip/groin pain is coming from tight muscles in the back of my hip, and those, in turn, may be tightening up because of the structural damage to my left hip capsule or to the fact that my left spinal erectors don't seem to work very well right now.  In either case, that first week after my first prolo treatment for the left hip/right spinal erectors, I had no hip/groin pain whatsoever.  ...I hope this hasn't been too confusing, if there's any questions just leave a comment and I'll be happy to respond.

I've starting running hard for short bursts on the treadmill, and it doesn't seem to cause any trouble whatsoever, so I'm thinking it would be ok for me to get into sprinting. There's a sprinting group that works out nearby. I'd like to join them but I'll have to tell them that in about three weeks I'll have to stop going for about a month.  We'll see what happens.