The shoulder…

I was made aware of the fact my last post had ended on a bit of a cliffhanger (at least for those that don’t know me personally but to be honest I’m not sure who else would read this nonsense). Anyway, let’s resume where we left off.

I had fallen over the dog kennel, gashed my leg and landed on my shoulder, went back to bed with shoulder and leg throbbing and Kat wasn’t aware of any of this until the morning (wow! that last post could have been sooooo much shorter!). So in the morning I looked over my leg and determined that while it was a bad cut (hip to knee practically) that it was JUST a cut and would heal in time. It did and while there were traces of it (scarring) up until maybe a month or two ago that healed perfectly.

My shoulder, on the other hand, was another matter. It ached and made my arm fairly useless for awhile. It wouldn’t be too bad when I first got up each morning but then with just the slightest bit of use it became very painful and I couldn’t do much with my arm. It got to the point that I would wear a sling all day come home and sit in the recliner with ice/heat on it to calm it down enough. I couldn’t sleep on my left side (which is a common way I slept) and I was just generally miserable. It was just a good thing it was my dominant arm so it didn’t affect my daily tasks… oh wait it DID affect them and made them impossible!

Kat was pretty sure it was at least a partial tear of the bicep tendons or cartilage in my shoulder and that time was my biggest ally so we waited. She gave me some exercises to do every day and she allowed me to rest it as much as possible when home (as we were awaiting the delivery of our “build your own shed” kit which was perfect timing as always). It seemed to be working as I would have good days but then I would have a day that felt like the first day after the accident and the pain was almost unbearable. We finally decided it was time to see a specialist.

Being in the medical field, Kat researched which doctors specialized in shoulders in our area and we settled on a doctor in Flagstaff. We both took a day from work and headed up there. He recommended surgery and was pretty sure it was a complete tear of the labrum (the cartilage that holds the shoulder together) and my recovery would be 6-8 weeks with the arm 100% immobilized, followed by 6-9 months or more of further recuperation before I was at least close to back to normal. We decided to go ahead with the surgery and get it scheduled.

Then we learned that the doctor we had chosen actually was NOT in our preferred group and the surgery out of pocket would be about 3-4 times what we were originally expecting. Since that wasn’t exactly doable we went for a 2nd opinion with a doctor in Prescott who we found that WAS in our medical coverage group. After a physical examination where they moved my arm all around, extended the shoulder, moved it forward and back and all sorts of other wonderful positions that were of the type my shoulder DEFINITELY did not like, he determined that it wasn’t an actual tear and he felt that steroid injections would bring it back into shape. He informed us that the MRI machines in use around here are 20+ years old and do fine for low-density scans (like backs and limbs) but when you get into more complex areas like shoulders and hips their imaging just wasn’t enough to get a clear picture.

So we opted to try his suggestion of steroid shots and while the shots were EXTREMELY painful (we have come to learn that I apparently suffer from vasovagal syncope which means my heart rate and blood pressure plummet when I encounter severe pain). I laid back for a bit after the shots, trying not to vomit, feeling clammy and just generally bad but once that all passed I discovered I could move my arm! It appeared the shots did the trick. The doctor said to avoid the sling and just USE the arm. It wouldn’t be comfortable but it would improve.

Walking into the parking lot I was already able to move my arm above my head and rotate it around maybe 70% of what I could prior to all of this. It did continue to improve and today I would say I am maybe 90-95% fully recovered. It still aches, there is still a pain if I move it certain ways or overuse it (like installing the roofing sheets onto a newly built shed) but it is better and at least mostly usable. Those times when it does feel painful or I have used the arm quite a bit do still make the shoulder ache and I just let it rest for a bit and it seems to resolve the pain. So we are hopeful that will be it and that time is now my biggest ally. We may need another round of shots but we will wait and see how it does on it’s own. As long as it doesn’t regress and continues to show even the slightest signs of improvement we will continue on as we are.

Well, that became a much longer follow-up post than I had anticipated but that’s the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would have said. Let’s see how long it takes me to post my next one… any bets?

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