"Don't Delay Seeking Help"

I injured my shoulder whilst weight training many years ago and as a result moved away from that form of training to avoid aggravating the injury.

In recent years I started to take up sport again and found that the old shoulder injury had not healed. I did see my GP around 2 years ago to check out what the problem could be but gave in too quickly, eventually accepting that it would be too difficult to cure and just restricted my training and put up with the pain which continued to restrict my ability to do what I really wanted to.

I recently took up a new sport called 'Crossfit' which involves building peoples all round fitness and is a great way of not only keeping fit but changing the shape of your body to reduce any unwanted body fat. As a lot of the work involved used the arms I found that my shoulder injury was hampering my progress yet again. This time I felt that I had to do something about it and therefore booked another appointment with my GP.

This time I took the time to fully explain what pain I was experiencing, how long it had been going on and what I was looking to do and finally what options I had to get to the bottom of this long standing injury.

He was very receptive to my explanation of my problem and after carrying out some shoulder movements he referred me to 'Sentinel'.

My whole experience with Sentinel has been overwhelming. I was seen within a few weeks; able to explain my injury to the doctor who got me xrayed there and then, showing me the xrays and where the problem was. He then administered a steroid injection into the problem area of my shoulder. I did nothing for 2 weeks but since then I have been pain free carrying out all sorts of exercises that I would previoulsly have been struggling to carry out due to the pain.

I start my physiotherapy in a couple of weeks to ensure that I make the correct movements to keep my shoulder free from injury but am already feeling the benefits after being restricted since the occurence of my injury in 1997.

I left it too long before seeking treatment and wish I had done this years earlier. I am very grateful to all the staff involved in helping me back to fitness and I am now enjoying pain free exercise; apart from the pain I choose to put myself through whilst doing it!