Frozen Shoulder

For the past few weeks my left shoulder has been really hurting. The worst is when I'm holding something or putting pressure on something. Things like carrying Violet, extending my arms out to put her in her crib, turning the steering wheel when I'm driving... Matt asked me to go to the doctor a couple weeks ago, but finding the time is hard. Plus, the doctor wouldn't know what to do and they'd just refer me to someone. So I FINALLY asked one of my coworkers (a physical therapist) who took a look at it in between patients...

...Frozen shoulder.

That is seriously what it's called! The cause isn't quite known, but the shoulder just gets stiffer and stiffer and more and more painful. The PT mentioned that its more common in women, moms, and 30 year olds. I told her I'm not 30 yet and she said, "well you're close!" Hahahaha :) In any case, I couldn't figure out what is causing it. I figured it must be age mixed in with having a giant heavy baby that I carry all the time. She gave me some exercises to help stretch it out and prevent it from getting worse. She also suggested heating it 1x a day.

Well... This morning I woke up and my RIGHT shoulder was sore, too!!! I was super sad as I got ready for work... Then Matt bursted my bubble! Turns out he knew the cause! He told me, "you know hun, you've been sleeping on your stomach with both arms under your pillow for the past month." Yikes... Then I started having these déjà vue moments and realized I knew exactly what he was talking about! Whenever I can't sleep I sleep on my stomach. And I love putting my arms under my pillow but they fall asleep so I can't. Well, I then recalled waking up with sleepy arms, but was too tired and lazy to move them because they hurt and were 'stuck' under the pillow!

My solution? I asked him to wake me up whenever he noticed this at night so I could move them :) Hopefully that solves it!