So, a few weeks ago I ended up at the doctor's office because my shoulder and elbows do not work. Just do not work. At all. All I feel is pain pain pain when my right shoulder tries to move, or when I go to lift something with my left arm hand. My fingers don't work, because of the pain in my elbow.
The doctor told me that I have tendinitis in my right shoulder. I cannot scratch my back, I cannot lift things. I cannot recline and put my arm up over my head. I cannot take off my bra (a mandatory activity that I do with my right hand...) So my doctor prescribed physical therapy for me. He gave me sheets of exercises and weights. I've been doing them but ... I don't think it is working.
As for my elbow, he has no answer. Maybe arthritis, but he thinks it is more likely from overworking my left arm to compensate for my right.
Long and the short of it is that the physical therapy isn't working.
I think I may have to call him and ask for a referral to a real live physical therapist to see if they can help more. Because I am not feeling the healing for myself.
Complicating things, on Sunday, I was walking down a flight of stairs at the bus station. Doug and I like to take downstairs, because upstairs are too hard, you know what I mean...? Yeah. You do. Anyway, I was running my hand down the railing, and my finger caught between the railing and a giant support pole.
I kept walking, and my fingers came to a screeching halt. And my shoulder took the brunt of the sudden halt of my hand. Which you can imagine caused immense and horrible, excruciating pain to my shoulder. Ho Mah Gawd yes it did. Holy Shit.
I collapsed in a corner and Doug had to wait for me to get over the absolute worst horrible pain of my life. He stood there and waited for me to recover. We both cracked jokes but honestly to be honest and honest to the core, it was painful.
For a day or two, I actually felt better. The tendons got stretched in ways that obviously I'm not getting to them. But really, this was the worst ever.
So I'm going to pursue some additional therapy over this. I want my arm back.
Ouch! I'm intimately familiar with that pain - it just drops you where you stand. I'm fairly certain my problems stem from tripping over the cat going down the stairs and catching myself because the shoulder that's in the worst shape right now is the one that got yanked pretty severely.
ReplyDeleteGoing back through the last couple months of blog posts I'm starting to wonder if we're not experiencing some kind of unfortunate medical twinship. I hope you aren't experiencing the dry itchy skin problems I've been dealing with.
i've always had dry itchy skin. so maybe we are!
ReplyDeletein 2009 on my way to work in a snow storm, a guy almost hit me head on in my lane on rte 62 in danvers. he decided to pass a truck parked on the side of the road, at too high a speed, and lost control... so i had to yank the steering wheel up and ended up in someone's yard, and i wrenched my shoulder. i had some massage therapy for a while, which made it feel better, but it wasn't better. and i think that event was the root of my problems... moving wood in december just made it worse. PT is helping, but it is no fun while i am doing it.
i have made great progress, and have only one more obstacle to over come (I can't put my hand behind my back, so taking off/putting on some articles of clothing is really hard).
i hope you feel better soon...