I had rotator cuff
surgery and started P.T. 5 days later. I continued 3 times a week for 3 months. It was tough but worth it. Granted, your injury and mine are completely different. By the time my PT was done I was also doing exercises at home for about 2-3 hours a day; it was almost like a job. Good luck!
sounds like you have a good PT
If anything, sometimes you have to challenge those folks to make sure they know you lead an active lifestyle. I know I did.
Heal well.
Frozen Shoulder
– Last Updated: Sep-19-12 8:51 PM EST –
By all means, see a physical therapist, particularly important in case of injury. But just to offer a somewhat contrarian view, a few years ago I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder, aka "adhesive capulitis," in which the capsule (sheath of tissue connecting ligaments) in the shoulder becomes inflamed, restricts motion, and hurts. This was not due to injury in my case, it sprung up without apparent cause, which is not uncommon.
In my case, physical therapy did not help. Ran through the exercises diligently for weeks, with no improvement. And then by chance I went out kayaking for the first time. A double kayak in which my wife was up front and I was in the back, and I was basically paddling for the two of us for about an hour and half in hot weather. It was hard work. I was convinced that the next day I would pay for this little outing big time, but awoke to find that overnight I'd recovered almost 50% of the motion I had lost, and the pain had receded considerably. So I did the only rational thing -- I bought a kayak, went out regularly several times a week, and after a month or so, my shoulder was cured. The orthopedist's reaction was "Nah, couldn't be." But there is no question that, in my case at least, actual hard work for an extended period of time is what got rid of the frozen shoulder. The relatively benign stretching regimen that I was given by the physical therapist (along with shoulder massage and a tens unit -- vibration) freed up nothing.
Since your shoulder was actually tramautized, I'm not telling you to do what I did. Injury, I'm sure, calls for a different protocol. But if anyone here gets a case of frozen shoulder without apparent injury, and finds that physical therapy isn't helping, you might try getting back in the boat.