nothing snaps you into an appreciation for your own mortality like a nasty fall. and fall I did, down the stairs, thanks to my dog.
equally annoying is a progrssively painfull shoulder and arm.
Lucky for me I got both at the same time. Two surgeries witin six months. One to restring my non existant ACL and two to remove a chronically enflamed bursa from my shoulder.
done and done....right?
not even. my naivete with how the body works and the limitations of modern western medicine mimiced exactly my unrealistic expectations with school districts and autism services.
You determine the problem, insert solution and you are done.
what a disappointment.
The knee? Took about a year and a half before it felt really good. I was ok with that. But the shoulder? What a mess.
The fire and flames that had camped out in my shoulder and arm had died down after the surgery but the pain never left.
It hurt to sit. It hurt to drive. It hurt every night and woke me up.
But I think I have finally learned the secret. You have to reject the impulse to expect a quick fix. So I worked the system.
Shoulder doctor dismisses me because I have full range of motion. But because there is neck pain, he sends me to Doctor Spine. MRI of the neck shows me that we are dealing with congenital spinal stenosis.
That means there isn't enough room in my spine in my neck so it pinches and squeezes stuff. Thanks MOm and Dad. The gift that just keeps on giving.
My options turn out to be pain management of varying degrees. Pills that are supposed to dull the nerve pain but end up making me feel like crap. Lidocaine patches I can stick on the skin do help a little. I only wish they could stay put. The last resort is a cervical epidural. YIKES!
The idea of getting a shot in my neck bugs just a little but then the cost was prohibitive.
So my days were spent experimenting. I swapped sessions between my trusted massage therapist and the chiropractor she recommended who just happened to have a magical traction machine. This worked well. I was catching some relief. The most important development was experiencing hope again.
But with that hope, I would inevitably try and do something too agressive and aggravate the problem again. My final analysis is that I have tendonitis.
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