Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Cortisone Injection # ?????

As I had hoped, my "new" OS gave me a cortisone injection. He agreed that whatever my issue is, it is coming from my AC joint. He is not sure what or how I injured it since there was no trauma, but he thinks that given my line of work, it is not too shocking. My x-rays were good, no arthritis or separation, he thinks that it is just a local inflammation and hopefully the cortisone will knock it out.
Most of his pain provoking tests referred pain to the front of my shoulder, at the AC joint, and there is tightness with horizontal adduction. I am pretty sure the cortisone in working, I felt no pain right after which is good since he used some local anesthetic with the steroid when he injected.
I hope to continue to report improvement with the shoulder!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Shoulder...

As my shoulder issue continues to be an issue, I am happy to report that I finally took the time to listen to what my body was telling me and self diagnose!!! I do not have a labral injury or a rotator cuff injury, rather, an acromioclavicular (AC) injury, or, a separated shoulder. Whats funny is that this is usually caused by trauma or a direct fall onto the shoulder....but not me, I just 'develop' these issues! Since it does not seem to be getting better, and I am having trouble sleeping at night and difficulty working, I made an appointment with a shoulder specialist. What a breath of fresh it air to deal with his office...I called Thursday and was given an appointment for Tues...5 days later....I think I waited for my first hip appointment 4 weeks and currently people are waiting 6 weeks or longer to see my OS. So I will hopefully see him tomorrow, hopefully he will give me a cortisone injection and I will be on my way!!!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Massage...Ahhh!!

I went for a 1 hour massage on Tuesday in hopes of leaving a little more relaxed and in less pain. The massage therapist asked if I had any "problem areas", so I told her my right shoulder had been bothering me. She said she would focus a little more on it while she worked.

So the massage began and she began working on my scapula and upper trap, "wow", she said, " this is really bad". She continued for another few minutes, and then said "I think I can spend the entire hour on this shoulder, if you want, or I can leave it if this is too painful for you and do the rest of your body". I told her to just do the shoulder. It was excruciating, every spot on the entire upper right quarter of my body was so painful. There were knots everywhere, she used her elbow, she was dripping sweat halfway into the massage. After the hour was up, she said that it looked better, definitely lower and softer, but she could spend another 2 hours on it if she had the time.

The rest of the day and into the next day were really painful. It hurt to touch the area. By Thursday night it was beginning to feel better. I have had a lot less pain in it and am able to use it more than I was. I am hoping that it was a big muscular issue and I won't be dealing with it anymore. I will keep you updated since I still continue to have pain at night and some of the surrounding muscles still hurt.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Running...Again

I decided to give running one more chance, how bad can it be, I already had 4 hip surgeries, hurt my ankle, peed all over myself and hurt my shoulder...does lightning really strike twice????

So....most importantly, the pelvic floor exercises really worked, no more incontinence on the treadmill!!! This was the main reason I hadn't gone back to running. It was a huge concern of mine and luckily I was able to take care of it. The hips and ankles did great as well. Unfortunately, running bothered my shoulder.....strange as it sounds. At about 22 minutes I gave up completely on running and stuck to walking, I guess the pounding and vibrations seem to upset it too much.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Shoulder Update

For those of you with shoulder issues, please chime in and tell me if any of
this is familiar. I have pain on and off, sometimes I am 100% pain free, other
times I am in agony. I can do anything with it, but will immediately know if I
shouldn't have bc it will hurt. Nights are the worst, sometimes I can't sleep it
is so bad. The pain is usually right at the top/front of the shoulder but will
radiate to the back of my scapula, down my biceps or triceps and into my upper
trap. I guess it depends what I do and how I compensate. I ice, I heat, I
Flector, they help but the pain come back. I am trying to strengthen my rotator
cuff but it is painful and I usually have more pain later in the day when I do.
My ROM is starting to feel limited at endrange, so I am stretching it daily.

So...those are my symptoms. I have also done acupuncture and moxa, acupuncture
didn't help, moxa may have, I just did it last night so the jury is still out. I
just want a quick fix and for the pain to go away!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Shoulder Now.....Please Make It Stop

Very interestingly, a few weeks ago, it was brought up on the FAI yahoo group that many people on the list who have had an acetabular labral injury have also had a glenoid (shoulder) labral injury. While the anatomy of the 2 is very different, the hip is an inherently stable joint and the shoulder is an inherently unstable joint, I found it odd that so many people had both issues. I don't think there is a relationship and I doubt that so many people have any underlying soft tissue pathology, but who knows. Honestly, I think that it has to do with the fact that these types of injuries occur in young and active populations. I didn't think much of it until about 3 weeks ago when my shoulder began hurting...alot.

For the past several months, I have had pain at the top of my shoulder and my upper trap, I attributed it to stress and promised myself that I would schedule a massage. Of course I never found time for a massage so continued to suffer. It was especially bad at night, so I attributed it to my pillow and switched to another one. That didn't help. The pain then travelled into my shoulder joint, into my biceps and posterior scapular muscles. It hurt at rest, more at night, felt weak, at times it is difficult to hold a glass of water or coffee cup. I can do everything with it, and it usually doesn't hurt while I am doing it, but will hurt right after. It feels weak but I cannot pinpoint one spot where the pain is, it is an entire area. The last 2 nights I have slept with a Flector patch on it and it seems to be helping.

Just as the hip issues were beginning to clear up, this happens. I am at a loss with this and don't know what to do.....