Things You Need a Shoulder For

No, not a shoulder to cry or lean on, but a real shoulder to do things with. I seem to have developed some sort of shoulder problem - the rotator cuff, I believe it's called. It happened on the other side about 6 or 7 years ago and I ended up having to have months of physical therapy. What a bore.
Don't know what I've done. I exercise a lot but not by playing anything that needs to be held and smashed around by my left hand. I haven't done any gardening recently - that's the culprit for the three months of tennis elbow I had all summer.
This is a bugger though, because I can move it forwards and still lift reasonably heavy things - as long as no diagonal motions are required. It's the cross-movements that are really painful, and lo and behold, there are a lot of cross-movements going on in our everyday life that I'm sure we all take for granted.
So here's a list of the things I can't do (without a lot of pain) because of the left shoulder being somewhat out of action -
- take anything off over my head. I can get them on, which is half the problem because it never  occurs to you as you're putting a pajama t-shirt on that you won't be able to get it off if you're on your own the following morning. (I eventually did get it off but the result wasn't pretty. Sitting on the floor, wincing with pain and sweating profusely.)
- wash my hair. Think about it. Washing your hair with one hand? Almost impossible.
- dry my hair. Actually, that was a non-starter. We're going for the bed head look today.
- take a bra on or off. So it's saggy bed head look then is it?
- put a seatbelt on. I'm sitting on the left hand side of my car remember. Driving the little guy anywhere this week is going to be a challenge. It's not so much the safety element, or the possibility of getting caught by the police - it's the damn pinging noise that goes on and on and on until you get the seat belt fastened.
- walk the dog. Well, I can but if she does the walking behind me then criss-crossing in front of me thing I'll be in trouble as I usually have to pass the leash from one hand to the other. I will also have to figure out how to scoop the poop and tie the bag with one hand, while still restraining her from her squirrel patrol.
In short, I am having to pass all effort and responsibility on to my right arm and shoulder. I'm going to end up like Popeye down one side at this rate.
Just remember to love your shoulders before it's too late.