Plethora

The world on my shoulders

May 12th, 2008

With my NYC pictures post (which didn’t even work) and my birthday, plus the weekend, I haven’t really updated everyone on the shoulder issue.

Background:
In 7th grade I was running my first competitive race, the 5k Corn Run. I was roughly half done when my right shoulder started to ache. I remember it felt very uncomfortable, but it didn’t feel like a muscle tear, more like a cramp. I could raise my arm over my head and it didn’t hurt, as soon as I put my arm back done, it hurt again. It rarely bothered me.

Then I remember it in high school, specifically wrestling. I remember my shoulder hurting a lot in wrestling. The same thing worked and so I would do that or the adrenaline of the match would make me forget about it. I do specifically remember dreading Firemen’s Carry drills because I couldn’t do them. It hurt too much.

Freshman year of college I finally see Wade and he has me do some exercises. I do them very half-assed, but never have any improvement. He says that it’s probably tendinitis or maybe bursitis and that I need to strengthen my muscles and can’t Military Press or Bench Press anymore when I work out. He also said I should quit golfing so much, but realized it’s like asking a Rausch to quit breathing.
Somewhere in there I also saw Paul who told me pretty much the same thing, but with no fast results.

Then I saw a Dr. in Doylestown for my heart issue, and while removing my shirt (oh yeahhhh) for the EKG he noticed I was struggling and I said it was a shoulder issue, he wanted me to see his specialist and said that a PT is NO DOCTOR. Wow. Cause of his arrogance I chose not to get him his referral bonus.

Finally I saw a Dr. specifically for my shoulders, he X-Rayed and MRI’d them both. Finally recommended a specialist, I found my OWN specialist, and viola. You’re all caught up.

I went to see Dr. Cody who pushed and pulled on my shoulders, said he thinks my shoulders are very unstable (yeah it won’t quit crying, LOL OMG!) and imbalanced (it keeps cutting itself…) and that oddly enough my left shoulder has a lot more “going on” than my right.

Here’s the skinny, I have bursitis, but add a shoulder that basically keeps popping in and out of joint, like my right shoulder, and you have a bone that’s pushing and aggravating the bursitis. How do you fix this? You need to strengthen the shoulder with PT, but you can’t strengthen it without being pain-free. So, what does Uncle Bryce and every star Running Back in the NFL have in common?

Any guesses? We’ve all had cortisone shots! Right in the shoulder. And you know what, no pain since then. I’m literally afraid to move my right arm because I have been able to sleep at night, to sit through a movie, to drive in my car, and to just sit watching TV all pain-free. No aches, no shooting pains, no nothing. Absolutely crazy. The bad part is this shot is temporary. The pain will go back and if the PT doesn’t work, I’m stuck having surgery or living with the pain.

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