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kitanziDepending on who you are and how much you're stuck listening to me whine on a regular basis, you may know I've had a problem with my right shoulder since roughly around the time of the British filk con back in February. I intially assumed I'd pulled something while lugging luggage and ignored it, but after a month or two of increasing pain and decreasing mobility I wound up at the doctor. He diagnosed impingement, gave me some anti-inflammatory pills to take, and The World's Largest Red Rubber Band (for DIY physical therapy), told me to come back in a month. I did all that, came back, no substantial improvement. He referred me to a specialist, and I went. I answered the same questions with him, got a cortisone shot and was told to follow up in a month. I made that follow up appointment - and left my job just before the appointment, causing me to cancel it due to no insurance. In the time since then, it's gotten better, gotten worse, gotten better, gotten much worse... you see where this is going. I've found some factors that seem to affect it somewhat, and getting a real computer desk with a keyboard tray at home (and at my new job!)have helped somewhat but to make a long story short ("Too late!"), ACat has put me on his insurance and within roughly 36 hours of getting that card I was at the doctor's office.
That was today.
So he poked and he prodded and he did the usual "Does this hurt? No? How about THIS?" routine, where the object seems to be to keep trying whatever might hurt you until you admit that yes it DOES DAMN WELL HURT DAMMIT STOP THAT NOW! The upshot is that I have a refill on my anti-inflammatory pills and another specialist referral to the same specialist(had to re-do that due to new insurance), an excessively sore shoulder (and a headache to boot), and a promise of an MRI as soon as he can arrange it. The diagnosis is still impingement, cause unknown, and now he's talking about the likelihood of surgery. It's not honestly a surprise, but it's still a scary thing to contemplate.
Oddly, I'm less freaked out now that I have heard him say this than I was before the appointment. I'm at a point where I'd do damn near anything to get this definitively fixed if you caught me at the right moment. ("Swallow glass? Well, at least it won't wake me up gasping in pain in the middle of the night, sure!") Still, I'm hoping someone out there has had something similar, and can offer some hopeful stories or helpful advice?
That was today.
So he poked and he prodded and he did the usual "Does this hurt? No? How about THIS?" routine, where the object seems to be to keep trying whatever might hurt you until you admit that yes it DOES DAMN WELL HURT DAMMIT STOP THAT NOW! The upshot is that I have a refill on my anti-inflammatory pills and another specialist referral to the same specialist(had to re-do that due to new insurance), an excessively sore shoulder (and a headache to boot), and a promise of an MRI as soon as he can arrange it. The diagnosis is still impingement, cause unknown, and now he's talking about the likelihood of surgery. It's not honestly a surprise, but it's still a scary thing to contemplate.
Oddly, I'm less freaked out now that I have heard him say this than I was before the appointment. I'm at a point where I'd do damn near anything to get this definitively fixed if you caught me at the right moment. ("Swallow glass? Well, at least it won't wake me up gasping in pain in the middle of the night, sure!") Still, I'm hoping someone out there has had something similar, and can offer some hopeful stories or helpful advice?
