The shoulder that finally let go

My left shoulder froze two winters ago. First I could not reach the top shelf, then I could not put on a coat without help. Physical therapy helped for a while, then stopped helping.

The next suggestion was a manipulation under anaesthetic. I wanted to try everything else first.

A trip for two

My wife wanted a holiday. I wanted my shoulder back. CuraMosaic put together a programme in Macau that gave us both: tuina for me every morning, and moxibustion for her, which she had read about for years and never tried.

I will admit I expected a nice massage. It was not that.

What tuina actually feels like

The practitioner found the exact spots that hurt within a minute of touching me. The pressure was firm, sometimes very firm, and I learned to breathe through it. Then she would stretch the arm a little further than I thought it would go, hold it, and let it back.

For the first two days I was sore. On the fourth day I could lift my arm to shoulder height without it pulling. On the eighth day I reached the top shelf of the hotel wardrobe and called my wife over to watch.

“I can lift my grandson again.”

Afternoons in Taipa

In the afternoons we walked. Macau is a strange and lovely mix, with Portuguese tiles and Cantonese tea houses on the same street. We ate our way around Taipa village and took far too many photographs of egg tarts.

My wife came home saying she felt warmer than she had in years. I came home able to put on my own coat.

Back home

The first time I saw my grandson after the trip, I picked him up without thinking. He is two and heavy. My daughter cried a little.

I keep up the exercises. The shoulder is not perfect, but it is mine again.