CHARLOTTE – Each day this week I have seen at least two to three people that have a shoulder issue. One client had a shoulder that hurts around the back, on their scapula. She gets a jolt of electricity sent by her nerve whenever she decides to move around. It hits when she least expects it, and appears to stop her in her tracks at any given time. I have now learned not to cringe when she gets the pain.

What has she done to get this diagnosed? Tried chiropractic, had several MRI’s and surgery is probably near in her future. When I first started seeing her she had a frozen shoulder.  We went through 8 weekly sessions until the shoulder was able to move and her pain was almost non-existent, her range of motion restored. We celebrated this “win” and she went on to schedule maintenance massages, meaning one massage a month to keep her shoulder feeling good.

Now, she’s back and the pain has returned, vengefully. She’s back talking with the surgeon, having exhausted every method or modality she can before she submits. And I applaud her. It takes courage to decide to look around and try new things in order to avoid the knife. Work with your doctor if you’d like to try massage before surgery. If it’s an option, make a plan with your therapist and see if you can control the pain without surgery. It might mean regularly scheduled massages, but that beats surgery any day.