So, it's been awhile since I've updated the Stupid Ways That I Have Injured Myself. I mean, I've posted a couple of other things I've done, like this and...wait, is that the only other one I've posted? I didn't post how I got a concussion getting into the van when Mark was in 8th grade, or the incredibly nasty gouge-y bruise I got falling off the coffee table (no, I'm not going to tell you what I was doing on the coffee table), or the time I fell down the cellar stairs about five minutes after I had assured someone just leaving that I would be -fine-, or the number of times that I have tripped going upstairs because I catch my toe in the pant leg of my pajamas? Really? Wow, I have neglected this blog.
Anyway, I hadn't done anything stunning in quite awhile, and I was starting to lull myself into a false sense of security that perhaps I was becoming less accident-prone. And then I majorly messed up my right shoulder doing...I have no idea.
It started bothering me in February-ish, and at first I thought it might be related to being a stomach-sleeper my whole life, so I trained myself to sleep on my back (thank you, meds for my periodic limb movement disorder, which allow me to now wake up in pretty much the same position I go to sleep in). I lightened my purse and started carrying it in my hand instead of slinging it on my shoulder. And the pain would go away, and I would be all good, and then it would come back, and I would think about going to the doctor, and then it would go away again.
Well, finally it stopped going away and was hurting -all- the time, so I called the doctor and she did some basic tests in the office and told me that I had tendonitis, bursitis, and an impingement in the rotator cuff. Told me to stop using the shoulder as much as possible, take Aleve twice a day, ice it three times a day, and referred me to physical therapy.
Naturally, because this is me, my shoulder actually got -worse- after I started resting it. Ptherapist told me that I had additional tendonitis in the bicep and the pectoralis. Go me. My body has this thing where it will drive itself as long as possible, and then when I finally get a chance to slow down, it will pile all the crap on me that it's been putting off.
So anyway, blah blah blah, instability in the shoulder, blah blah blah, pain all the time, blah blah blah, suggestion that I should get some additional tests with the orthopedist. So I made an appointment. The very next day, I did something that gave me excruciating pain in my shoulder at the moment (boarded the boat, actually, to visit with Brenda, and hit something just wrong), but after that, I had almost -no- pain in my shoulder unless I was moving it in certain ways, BUT my collarbone started pushing out in a funny way which was -completely- freaking me out, and there was pain around -that-. Apparently I may have released the impingement, but caused some severe inflammation in the pectoralis muscle under the collarbone. So sez the physical therapist.
Now I've seen the orthopedist once, with XRays (which came out ok except for a couple of bone spurs), and have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow.
SO. Naturally my shoulder has now pretty much stopped hurting anywhere unless I do particular movements, and my range of motion is improving. This thing has been bothering me since -February-. I will not be at all surprised if very little shows up on the MRI. Which on the one hand is very, very good, because I really did not want to find myself going down a path that led to surgery.
On the other hand, if it was all going to go away as soon as I started getting it seriously checked out, why didn't I do that two months ago?? *sigh* mk
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