I guess I'm on rest for awhile.
I haven't worked out on my elliptical since Friday morning, and now that my shoulder is tore up, the doc told me absolutely no physical exertion until we find out what I did to it.
I have to call first thing in the morning and schedule a CT scan at a private facility, not the hospital.
It's not pre-authorized, so I have no idea if my Medicare will cover it, what my co-pay will be, nada.
Then if it's a bad tear, I have no idea what kind of treatment will be done.
I'll probably end up in PT and massage therapy again.
I hate massage therapy, but I'll do it if he says so.
I swear, I did absolutely nothing to cause this.
Monday night I was fine other than swollen feet from walking so much, Tuesday all day, same swollen feet thing, and then by Tuesday night at bedtime, I had a dull ache in my shoulder, but nothing intolerable.
By Wednesday morning, it was on fire.
It hurt and ached and burned all day, and to go with it, a migraine.
Last night was simply agony.
I couldn't sleep, laying on my mattress even with the new pad, was hell.
By this morning, moving my arm in any way sent spasms and burning, stabbing pain, through the whole area.
Getting up from laying down, even keeping my arm close to my body, was hell.
I was in tears waking the boys up for school this morning, and they were so worried, but I made them go anyway.
The doc didn't even call me back until 2:20pm, and told me to come in at 3, so te boys had just come home as I was leaving.
The doc gave me two injections for the pain, one before we did the xrays which was supposed to be a super strong muscle relaxer and make taking the xrays easier.
That was Toradol.
It didn't help.
I had to raise my left arm outstretched to the side, and it was hell.
I did it though, I cried the whole time during the xrays. Extended arm to the side, raised above my head, across my chest, as far back as possible.
He was looking to see if I damaged a rod or screw, or fractured a bone in that area.
There was no sign of that that he could see, so he gave me the script to get a CT scan to see if the muscle is torn.
Then he gave me an injection of Decadron which is used to treat severe inflammation among other ailments.
Decadron is a corticosteroid. It works by decreasing or preventing tissues from responding to inflammation. It also modifies the body's response to certain immune stimulation.
He said it should take effect in about 24 hours, and last for about 2 weeks.
I've had this one before about 2 months ago, in my iliac joints, and it helped some, but not great.
He offered to give me an injection of some other pain medicine directly into the shoulder, but I think I would have passed out had he done that.
He barely touched the area and I almost collapsed to the floor from pain.
I was standing there shaking as he tried to examine it, he said I have some discoloration in the shoulder, like a bruise, and he kept touching it to see if he could feel anything.
I was crying, shaking, and every touch made me cry out a bit.
He kept apologizing but said he had to do it.
I should be used to pain by now, but man, whatever I did to myself this time is a doozy.
I've done this before, but it's always been my right shoulder, and not this bad.
Back in February, the massage therapist worked my shoulders, and my left one hurt about 3 hours after I got home.
That pain went away, but again, it was nothing like I have right now.
The new pain med he gave me isn't covered by Humana without pre-authorization, so Walgreen's didn't fill it.
They faxed my doc an authorization form, but by the time they did that, his office was already closed for the day, so hopefully in the morning, he'll fill it out and fax it back.
For now I am doubled up on my regular Lortabs and the new stronger dose of Zanaflex, which isn't doing much at all right now.
I am hoping that by morning, things will be even slightly improved in my shoulder.
I have so much to do too, so this really sucks.
I'll probably end up sleeping in a half-seated position tonight, because flat on my back or even laying on my side is just too much.
