Saturday, February 21, 2009

I Have a Bad Feeling About This

Back in September, I wrote about my most recent injury. Short story: I felt something in my shoulder area pop when I pushed the sprinkler into the ground. The kind folks at the walk-in clinic said it was a strained pectoral muscle, and it should feel better in two to four weeks.

Six months later, the constant pain and lack of sleep finally sent me to the doctor. After two doctor's appointments, an MRI, and a rather painful physical therapy session, I finally have a diagnosis. Because I am not medically inclined, I will use diagrams to explain my condition.

A healthy shoulder:
My screwed-up shoulder:(Mad PhotoShop skillz, I haz dem.)

Apparently, there's a torn supra-something tendon, and a torn labrum (maybe?), and some bursitis. At least I think that's what it is, because my doctor has a pretty heavy accent and I can't always understand her very well. While she was telling me the diagnosis and recommending an orthopedic surgeon, I was surreptitiously reading the MRI results on the computer over her shoulder, so that I might have some comprehension of what she was saying.

It looks like the next step is the orthopedic surgeon...on March 19th. That was the earliest available appointment. Thanks, guys. I should be a raving Lortab addict by then. Until then, I will have two torture, um, physical therapy sessions each week. If you've never needed any kind of physical therapy, you should consider yourself lucky. They do all kinds of weird things to you there. But that will be the topic for my next post, I think.

6 comments:

JD at I Do Things said...

Oh, ouch. I'm sorry. But I bet that Band-Aid is helping, right? (hilarious, by the way).

I'm convinced it's all a plot on the part of pharmaceutical companies. Delay or refuse proper medical help so we all become addicted to pain pills.

I hate physical therapy, too. It's just hard work at a time when you're in pain. What's therapeutic about that?

Hope you're doing OK.

Kathy said...

I never want physical therapy for anything, judging from the horror stories I hear. Just let me suffer in silence. I'll be fine.

Sorry to hear you have to wait so long for an appointment. What's up with that?

absepa said...

JD: Thanks! You and Kathy do such a great job of making light of your misfortunes that I was inspired to try to do the same.

I think that theory is spot-on...the longer I'm in pain, the more sweet, lovely Lortab I will buy.

Kathy: I am hoping to write a whole post about the kinds of things they do to you in physical therapy--it's just crazy stuff. If you're clumsy, like me, that adds an extra element to the whole thing, too.

See JD's excellent theory about why I had to wait so long for an appointment.

musingwoman said...

I've never had physical therapy and will try and avoid it in the future (the grass will just have to sprinkle itself).

Hope the surgery goes well!

Ames said...

Um, yeah, that's not sounding so good. How long will you be out of commission? I went to physical therapy for my knee and I ended up just quitting it because it was such a pain in the butt! Let me know how the surgery goes.

absepa said...

Musing: PT is just weird. Hopefully I can do its weirdness justice when I write about it.

Ames: PT is a pain in the butt, and a $35 co-pay for each visit on top of it. They say I may not need surgery; I'm keeping my fingers crossed!