I had an appointment with the physio yesterday and he’s very pleased with the improvement in movement that I have managed over the past week. Apparently I am doing everything right, and the good news (for my bank balance) is that I don’t need to see him again unless something goes wrong. I just continue on doing what I have been doing and eventually all will be well.

And I do have more movement. I am now able to do things such as clean my teeth and brush my hair with my right hand again. This is very good.

The bad news is that things are by no means right yet. Typing is still painful if I do it for any length of time. I can’t lift any weights with my right arm, or put any weight on it. I constantly have to remind myself of this. I have to do exercises about once an hour, and apply ice and heat treatment several times a day.

The worst part is probably that I can’t sleep through the night. After a few hours of immobility my shoulder gets sufficiently painful that it wakes me up. So I’m doing the ice/heat treatment in the middle of the night as well. This is making me very tired. But it is so much better than not being able to move the arm at all, which could easily have happened had I just followed the advice the NHS gave me.

Talking of which, last night at the Colin Harvey memorial I swapped notes with my friend Sam who injured an elbow falling off his bike a few weeks ago. He still can’t straighten the arm, and he too can’t get any physiotherapy from the NHS.

So, people, please take note. The NHS is great if you are seriously ill (and not someone whose lifestyle they may disapprove of), but for minor injuries, and particularly physiotherapy, if you can afford to see an expert, please do so. If you wait, the treatment will get very much more difficult and expensive.