Shoulder Pain. The first steps to combat pain

As we spoke about throughout our blog series on shoulder pain in part one (here) and two (here), getting a thorough assessment and diagnosis is key to getting your shoulder working and pain free. So here’s what you can expect from your first appointment at PhysioCare.

When you arrive will be greeted with a friendly smile by the front-of-house team. You will be asked to fill out an initial form with some basic information and some simple questions. Next your physiotherapist will introduce themselves and bring you through to the private treatment room.

Assessments
Next, you will talk your physiotherapist through the issue. This part is called the subjective. Taking a good history can rule out a lot of potential problems; meaning we can start to focus straight away on the problem. We will discuss how it all came about, what you are able and unable to do and how it affects your day to day activities. We will also discuss some realistic goals about moving forward.

Now we move to the objective part. This is where we will observe how you move and get a sense of how things ‘slide and glide’. We will look at your strength, flexibility and movement. We will take some baseline measurements which will help in assessing your progress. Throughout the physical assessment we will give you an explanation of what is going on in terms that you can understand.

Combining the subjective and the objective findings we will formulate a diagnosis which will help choose the appropriate treatment plan (which we will discuss in the next blog).

Moving Forward
The most important part is receiving some simple and realistic advice. How long it will take to resolve the issue and how many treatments it might take. This will help you understand the problem in the shoulder and how to go about actively resolving the pain. We will then review our realistic goals and expectations from earlier and set them in motion. This will be written down and you will get an e-mail of your tailored home exercise plan.

When you are finished your therapist will walk you to reception and your follow up review will be set (if necessary).  By the end of your appointment, you should leave with the knowledge and skills to combat your pain effectively. There might a small piece of homework too in the form of exercises and stretches for you to complete..

In the final instalment of our four part blog series on shoulder pain, we will look at different treatment techniques and some tips for prevention.