I always say that I have been put on the earth this time around to learn patience, and right now, just before my 68th birthday I am being forced to be patient, not with others, but with myself. I am following my Doctor’s and my Physical Therapist’s orders on what exercise I can do, and to be perfectly blunt and unprofessional, it sucks!
After a couple of weeks of therapy I have a recovery to about 35% of where I was before my rotator cuff pain began. I suppose this is good; however for me it is not good enough. I wake up when my shoulder pain calls in the middle of the night, and stare at the ceiling wondering if I am doomed to this ache for the rest of my days. 
My intellectual side understands exactly what is going on with my shoulder - I have impingement of the supraspinatus tendon. Was there a particular injury or action that was the cause of this condition? No. Supraspinatus tendonitis is a common cause of shoulder pain in athletes whose sports involve throwing and overhead motions. I expect my swimming for the past 11 years at least 3 days per week and my scoliosis which has my right shoulder (the effected one) higher than my left and slightly forward is the cause. So the cause is probably a combination of age, overall pre-existing physical conditions and my athletic prowess…GREAT. Just great……NOT!
I have had to change my routine and that is very difficult for me. I pulled back on lifting any weight at all for 3 weeks now and am doing the exercises recommended by my therapist with my trainer, with my therapist, and at home. The improvement has stabilized to this point, with the exception of being able to increase my swimming breast stroke from 30 to 35 minutes and then 45 minutes without pain during the swim. However I seem to be paying for the 45 minute swim today with some pain- more of an ache, but discomfort nevertheless. I iced before I went to bed last night and got immediate relief and 3 hours sleep before my arm awakened me. I iced this morning and got about 2-3 hours relief before the ache began again. To me this indicates little to no improvement. I cannot increase my bicep and tricep lifting weights (which we backed off from up to 25 pounds per arm to less than 5, at one point 1 pound weights were difficult to control) until I can swim for 45 minutes for several days with no pain.
I am frustrated. I will be 68 years old on 9/15 and have worked very hard to create the body shape that I have, and it is more difficult the older you get to replace muscle. That song keeps playing in my head, as does the one that says if you work too hard too fast you’ll tear the tendon completely and need surgery.
So I am taking Saturday through Monday off from physical activity using my arms and will hit the pool on Tuesday and see how it goes.
Think positive thoughts for me. I want to be able to go back to my full routine and keep shaping my body into new and better. This is harder than I thought it would ever be.