Shoulder Pain in Women: Pauline’s Advance7 Story

Pauline Fletcher · Harrogate

Pauline Fletcher from Harrogate ran her own florist's shop for the best part of twenty years, until she had to close it during the pandemic. Somewhere along the way, all that lifting and reaching left her with a nagging shoulder pain that settled around her left shoulder blade and would not shift. She tells us, with her usual good humor, how she found her comfort again.

Pauline, tell us a little about yourself.

I had a florist's shop for the best part of twenty years, and I loved every day of it. We had to close it during the pandemic in the end, but I'd had a good run, so I try not to dwell on it. These days, I'm mostly to be found in the kitchen with my hands in a bowl of something. I bake. My husband says I've turned the house into a branch of Bake Off, and he's not far wrong. I still love to look at flowers, mind you, but I just never want to arrange another bouquet as long as I live.

When did the shoulder pain start?

That's the odd thing, there was no great drama to it. I didn't fall, and I didn't lift anything heavy; it was sudden shoulder pain without injury, if that makes sense. One morning my left shoulder was simply sore, and it never really left. I kept waiting for some reason for the shoulder pain to show itself, a bruise or a knock, but there was nothing to see. I put it down to all those years hauling buckets of water about and reaching up to the high shelves in the shop.

Whereabouts did it hurt?

Mostly, it was shoulder blade pain. The ache sat right around, and under the left shoulder blade, and if I'm honest, the pain in my left shoulder blade was the thing that wore me down, that deep soreness underneath the shoulder blade on the left. On the bad days, it spread up into my neck, so I had neck pain from the shoulder as well, and a tightness right between the shoulders. My friend at the baking club, who has exactly the same, says shoulder blade pain on the left side is very common in women our age. I don't know if that's true, but it made me feel a good deal less daft about it.

Did you look into what might be causing it?

I did what everybody does. I sat up in bed with my phone, looking up the causes of shoulder pain in women, and there is a great deal of it about. My doctor had a feel around and thought it was mostly wear and tear, a bit of shoulder muscle pain and a touch of bursitis after all those years of using it hard. Nothing sinister, thank goodness, just a shoulder that had done an awful lot of living.

What did you try first?

Oh, the usual. A hot water bottle, which is lovely for ten minutes and then a cold wet nuisance. Some rub from the chemist that smelled like a horse's stable. The odd painkiller when it was really nagging, though I don't like taking those if I can help it. Nothing shifted it for long. It would ease off and then come straight back the moment I reached up for the good mixing bowl, which, being the good one, naturally lives on the very top shelf.

How did you come across Advance7?

A lady from my old flower suppliers swears by it. She told me it was a gel you massage straight into the sore spot, with capsules you can take alongside. I thought, well, I've tried everything else and most of it smelled worse, so I may as well give it a go.

How do you use it?

This is the part I've come to love, if I'm honest. Of an evening my husband sits on his side of the bed, the tube lives on his bedside table now, and he warms a little of the gel and works it in gently. Whichever shoulder is playing up, and it's nearly always the left, he takes his time and rubs the Advance7 in slowly, with a nice medium pressure, right around the shoulder blade. If your pain happens to be in your right shoulder rather than the left, it's just the same, you rub it in wherever it's sore and you don't rush it. On the odd evening he's out, there's a spray for the bit between the shoulder blades I can't quite reach myself, which is a blessing. It's become a proper little ritual for the two of us. He's a lovely man, my husband, he'd do anything for me, and I actually look forward to it now. The massage gets everything warm and the gel feels cooling and soothing going in, and I sleep so much better for it.

You take the capsules too?

I do, I take the capsules alongside the gel. In for a penny. If they help keep the joints happy then that suits me nicely, because I intend to keep baking for a good while yet.

What difference has it made overall?

An honest amount, which is what I'd say to anybody who asks. I won't pretend the shoulder pain has vanished completely, it still grumbles if I overdo things on a big baking day. But the deep shoulder blade pain that used to have me shifting about at night has really settled, and I can reach that top shelf again without wincing at it. I'm comfortable, I sleep, and I've got my husband rubbing my shoulder of an evening, so I can't complain.

And the baking?

Oh, don't get me started. Bake Off is the highlight of my week, I shout at the telly as if it were the football. I'm forever trying new things out on my poor husband, some of them triumphs and some of them proper disasters. I'd love to have a go on the show one day, though, between you and me, I don't think I'm quite good enough yet. Give me another year of practicing on that man, and who knows?

What would you say to someone going through the same thing?

Don't just put up with shoulder pain and hope it goes away, because mine had no intention of going anywhere on its own. If you've got a sore shoulder, or that nagging pain around the shoulder blade, get it looked at and find out what it is. Then find something that helps you. For me it's Advance7, and my husband's hands of an evening, and I wouldn't be without either of them. You don't have to simply grin and bear these things. I'm proof of that, and now I'm off to ice a cake.

Where shoulder and shoulder blade pain are commonly felt, on the left or right side.