SOS Physical Therapy

SOS Physical Therapists are expertly trained to evaluate and treat musculoskeletal disorders. Tim McHugh is certified in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy and has received extensive mentorship and training from other Diploma trained therapist such as Julie. We develop a progressive, step-by-step treatment plan, utilizing The McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy. You’ll receive one-on-one treatment and you’ll see the same physical therapist every session. We’ll carefully evaluate and re-asses your symptoms at each visit. To learn more or schedule an appointment call us today: https://www.sosptdelaware.com/

The following is a summary of the treatment of a 60 year old patient with left upper arm pain x 2 weeks with a significant loss of shoulder ROM. This patient had increased pain with all shoulder movements and was unable to elevate her arm more than 30 degrees. She was unable to carry anything in her left arm and was significantly limited with getting dressed or doing her hair because of her pain and limited ROM. She was unable work despite that fact that she had a desk job and worked at a computer because of the intense pain with elevating her left arm to type on the keyboard.

At her initially evaluation this patient could not tolerate any movement of her shoulder, actively or passively, due to her pain which she described as severe. However, upon screening the cervical and thoracic spine, we found that repeated left thoracic rotation significantly improved her shoulder flexion and abduction ROM to about 90 degrees.

On visit 2 her ROM remained better and she still responded best to this same thoracic rotation exercise. She increased the amount of repetition she was doing with this exercise and by visit 3 her shoulder ROM was remaining better even though she still had pain with the movement. At this visit we were able to progress her home exercise to thoracic extension and by visit 5 she had full shoulder ROM and strength, and was pain-free. While this is not the case with all patients that come in with limited and pain shoulder movements, by taking 10 minutes at her initial evaluation to screen her spine, we were able to avoid sending her down a treatment pathway that may have resulted in more imaging, injections or even surgery for her “shoulder” pain. After visit 5 she was able to return to work!

At SOS PT we provide 1-on-1 treatment. Every evaluation starts with a thorough history. When talking to patients about their complaints, there are many things to consider when trying to understand their problem, but the most important information regarding diagnosis comes from the following questions:
1. Where are your symptoms?
2. Are they constant or intermittent?
3. How long have they been there?
4. What makes you worse?
5. When you are worse, do you lose motion?