Frozen shoulder

Frozen shoulder. 1999. Ma is in Goa. One morning she is unable to lift anything with her left hand. Kind of stuck. She is taken to a doctor. Now Ma manages a very pained face when doctor starts with her. Then, to my dismay, she is not able to keep that pained face constant. She alternates between straight face and pained face. Doctor is also confused. Where is the pain? I helpfully put in that she, Ma, isn't able to lift anything with her left hand. The doctor is probing away here and there in search of a muscular disorder. Nothing. Ma is responding with yelps at inconsistent places. I see that she's yelped differently for the same place when the doctor has come back to press that spot after a few pokes elsewhere. It's like poke-ah, poke-ah, poke-ooh. Then back to spot 1 and viola, poke-ooh. The doctor is shaking head. I am also inwardly shaking head. We know injury is there but Ma's confused signals are helping none of us. Elaborate stuff with opening and closing fingers start. Till ten minutes before the examination, her fingers were absolutely fine. Suddenly her fingers were creating closing issues. Wrapping issues. Unwrapping issues. Very confusing. Like world weary pianists with misshapen fingers. Or truncated guitarists in mid concert jabs at the crowds. Suddenly the perfect hand had become something out of The Omen. I staring at hand. Hand staring and shivering at me. Doctor looking agape at me. Me helplessly looking at doctor. Ma oblivious. With extreme pained face. Anyway, the doctor after trying to remember all his medical lessons arrives at fact that it is a frozen shoulder probably. Needs physiotherapy. Physiotherapy usually gives succor to anyone who's ever tried it. Little machines and small exercises. Opens up muscles and creaky bones to newer activities. Ma yelps in pain during first physiotherapy. I patiently explain that there is nothing painful. But I know nothing. I am told so duly. I shut up. Better still, I stop going to those sessions where she has to go. Missus and others take over. Pain is gone or minimal. Over the years, I have deduced about 7 pain type faces that Ma has, specifically when I am around. I have allocated pains to each face. It helps. The Karnataka government will have it's pain type faces for us. The art will be in knowing those faces. One can negotiate better. Frozen shoulders or frozen bodies. Whichever.