"That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest." - Henry David Thoreau
There are a lot of things I take for granted. Maybe we all do. Being unable to use my arm these past couple of weeks has been a real eye opener. For two weeks, I wasn't able to take a bath. Logistically, I could get myself into the tub but I couldn't get myself out of the tub. By yesterday I had made enough progress to try to have a bath. I set the telephone on the side of the tub in case I got stuck and had to call the cavalry in to rescue me. I like baths. Outside of extraordinary circumstances, I haven't had a shower in years. My bath yesterday was especially sweet. I did manage to get myself out. As much as I would like to have bathed again this morning, I was sore enough and stiff enough not to risk it so it was back to the shower today.
I've learned a lot these past couple of weeks. The world isn't really made for people with one functional arm. I can drive with my right hand but drive-through windows at Tim's and MacDonald's aren't workable. Nor are parking lot entrances where I've been required to push a button and take a ticket at entry. I thought I would rip my shoulder open this morning when trying to park at the hospital for my appointment at the orthopaedic clinic.
The good news is that I'm certainly not suffering the same acuity of pain that I was last week at this time. I was out of my mind with pain for much of last week. I've been for two rounds of physio since I went to emergency for the first time a week and a half ago. I've also been back to emergency. It would seem that the first doctor I saw was less than diligent in taking an adequate amount of time or expending an adequate amount of energy to properly diagnose my pain. It took the physiotherapist all of three minutes to figure out that I don't have bicep tendonitis. She was quite certain that there was instead a problem with my rotator cuff - most likely a tear of the supraspinatus muscle. She was amazed that the emergency room doctor told me not to sling the arm and wouldn't give me any pain medication. By the time I got to physio, my pain level was so intense that my shoulder had frozen so she sent me back to emerg. This time the hospital did xrays, put me in a sling and arranged for me to see an orthopaedic specialist. The big question was, did I tear the muscle partially or completely? A complete tear means surgery. A partial tear means the injury may be healed by physio and time.
The specialist today told me he can see on the xray that there are calcifications in my rotator cuff. Those calcifications may be causing rotator cuff tendonitis. Or my supraspinatus muscle may be torn. He wants to try six more weeks of physio before we even bother trying to figure it out. If I'm not pain free in six weeks, he will order an MRI and we'll decide from there.
As for me, I'm pretty relieved. I still have a considerable amount of pain but at least I'm not crying with it anymore. I'm back to sleeping in bed instead of in a chair. I can, in a limited way, use my hand - at least enough to use the keyboard for short periods of time or hold the end of a wire when I'm making a piece of jewellery. I can even get my underwear on without feeling like I've done the twenty-minute workout. If there is some way to avoid surgery, I'll take it. I've run out of courage and I can't face the pain of being sliced and diced one more time.
No comments:
Post a Comment