[anhospog]

After struggling with regular shoulder pain in both AC joints for the past 18 months which included orthopod visits, xrays, MRI, steroid injections, 2 different physical therapists, NO bench or overhead pressing and consistently following the movements from both the Inside/Out DVD and the shoulder articles from T-Nation, I am down to one question. My xrays show a couple small osteophytes on the clavicular part of one of my AC joints. PT thinks if we get just the right angle we'll see osteophytes on the other AC joint also. The first PT suspected impingment but after 6 weeks of his exercise regimen and following Inside/Out I was still having substantial bilateral AC pain. The second PT does not suspect impingement but simply AC arthritis. This makes a certain amount of sense since even simple range of motion across my body leads to shoulder pain. My question is how many times have you seen AC arthritis as a primary disease with no impingment syndrome? If this is really my problem surgical intervention seems inevitable. The problem I'm having with accepting this is my muscle function evaluations by the orthopod and first PT took all of 1 minute and the second PT took all of 30 seconds. That is no exaggeration. I'm really uncomfortable sucuumbing to surgery after such cursory exams but if I can't perform range of motion it is very hard to follow the Inside/Out exercises. By the way, as far as pain, the steroid injections were miracle cures which lasted a month or so. I do not seem to have a type 3 acromion so I can't help but think if I knew exactly which muscles were short and which are long perhaps I could know which rehab exercises are helping and which are hurting any potential imbalance. Anyone know of a top notch PT in the New Orleans or Mobile, AL area? I would be more than willing to drive a few hours for a thorough evaluation and some educated advice.