Four years ago today, I slipped on some leaves while working in the backyard with my son. I tried to catch myself with my left arm, and ended up breaking my arm and tearing my rotator cuff on the way down. Surgery was required to repair my arm; it is now held together with a metal plate held in place with 13-screws.
So: I had a broken arm, screws in the bone of the broken arm, and a torn rotator cuff. It was 6-weeks of oppressive, non-stop pain that didn’t, wouldn’t, go away. For some reason, my body chemistry just doesn’t respond as it is supposed to respond to opioids.
Like most people who have never had a significant injury, I assumed it would hurt for a while and then it would be all better — like a bad cut or bruise. No. You must do the physical therapy, or you’re going to be really sorry. Here is why: Altogether, more than 20-muscles are implicated in the movement of your arm. If one of the large ones is out of use, the other muscles have to pick-up the shortfall, pushing or pulling a little harder than usual even if the arm is at rest (ΣFx,y,z = ΣMx,y,z = 0). If the injured muscle — especially a strong, important one — is allowed to heal in a slack state, and all of the other muscles are allowed to remain in atypical compression or tension, they will remain that way. This results in misalignment of the ball at the end of the arm bone in the shoulder socket — and a lifetime of pain.
I mention this because I approached physical therapy with skepticism, not understanding why it was needed, and I’ve learned since then that lots of people resist going to a physical therapist. I was in such pain the first few irritable visits that, to this day, I don’t know whether the therapist explained all this to me and I just didn’t understand it, or if I figured it out myself browsing the Internet to understand how my arm and shoulder work together, but once I did understand it I became obsessive about following the prescribed routines and exercises.
BONUS: Since a portion of my pain was related to atypical compression and tension of the muscles, and the corresponding misalignment of the ball and socket in my shoulder, the physical therapy actually had the effect of relieving — albeit only temporarily, though for progressively longer periods of time — some of the pain.
I have today almost a full range of motion in my arm; there is a slight hitch at the very top of the arc if I try to point my arm straight up. That’s the plate in my arm bumping into the shoulder bone, so I’m just going to have to live with that very modest loss of motion. There is occasionally some dull, not-serious discomfort in that shoulder, a barely noticeable reminder of the accident. I benefited a great deal from physical therapy, and if you injure yourself and the doctor prescribes it, you should suck-up the aggravation and take the advice.