Supraspinatus tendonitis/osis HELP

[physiobob]

Hi Kadafee. thanks for your post.

The first thing I would say is that an acute injury (a fresh one) does not really need frictioning to much as that is usually applied to more chronic injuries that have stopped the natural healing process. The second would be that often a tear to the supraspinatus tendon that becomes symptomatic is the result of a gradual degenerative process in the tendon, perhaps due to long standing poor mechanics and overuse.

Shoulders are notorious for being slow to rehabilitate and you can understand why when you consider the length of time it takes for them to become painful. I suppose i am suggesting many people have a supraspinatus issue without pain before that eventually (though not always) sets in.

Now this can take 8-12 months for pain to resolve especially if the tear is significant. The best way to get a quick understanding of the damage to the tendon is to have a diagnostic ultrasound performed by a skilled professional. Once you have that you can plan the next step. Your physio could also look at the mobility of your AC Joint during the arms movement to see if that can be optimized. That may reduce the clicking as would thoracic mobility work, especially into extension to allow the scapula to find a stable position during elevation.

The exercise you attached shows more a stretch for the internal rotations and pec minor etc which is fine however it is not the main part in restoring rotation cuff instability. You need your therapist to work on the external rotators, especially eccentrically and while mainting the scapula in the correct position though various degrees of arm elevation.

So see if you can get some investigations. Take it SLOW as it will take time and you can't speed that up by doing more. You could look to some pain relieving modality perhaps as as adjuct to the treatment specifically to address pain.


Lastly let us know how you get one. Best of luck.

[kadafee]

Hi thanks for the quick reply!

I've had the problem for a while now and 3 years ago had the exact same problem on my left arm. With my left arm I had the problem for a long time (around a year and a half before getting it diagnosed) NHS physios and ortho couldn't diagnose it, MRI showed nothing so went in for arthroscopic surgery which again showed nothing but afterwards a physio whom I met at a boxing event quickly evaluated me and told me I had shoulder impingement. I didn't do anything with that shoulder and it took 3 years to finally heal. I'm just worried I don't have to go through the same thing with the right one!

Unfortunately I can't afford to seek private help anymore so will have to go back to the NHS. Is there anything/anyone i should specifically ask for and in the mean time what should I be doing? Currently I do the supine and prone rotations along with roations on a shoulder horn, pec and lat stretches and scap push ups.

EDIT: Also I feel clicking when I squeeze my shoulder blades together my phyiso explained it's nothing.