Aches and Pains

After a brief stint trying to get it worked out in Perth, I'm now more than two months into physical therapy and treatment for my shoulder here in Denver. I'm finally starting to make a little progress, but most days it's hard to tell as some part of my shoulder, neck, back is still in so much pain I can't pick things up or lift much over a couple pounds (forget a nearly 40lb toddler the size of a four year old).

Good news, we're narrowing in on the shoulder stuff. Rotator cuff is tweaked, due to a bone spur, tendonitits, and ongoing bursitis, the latter I learned of in Perth. Bad news, my neck/back are in a lot of pain - probably more than before. Worse news, I'm still not allowed to do any real physical activity which is pretty darn annoying - no swimming, working out, barely just walking really, and only that at a mellow pace so I don't tense up. Anything other than resistance strengthening for my shoulder, and even that sometimes, creates spasms in my neck and back which set everything right back to the beginning. That bad cold I had a few weeks ago came with a nasty cough which locked up my neck so I couldn't look right again. That put a damper on my physical therapy, I had to back off even the resistance exercises until my neck unlocked. Locked up neck/back = no shoulder strengthening exercises allowed = weak shoulder = part of the problem (plus the big bone spur that's rubbing, but hey, you know, - just gotta be TOUGH!)

Bone spur: you can see how a pointy bone where it's not supposed to be might hurt.
Bursa in your shoulder: mine's inflamed and so is swollen, taking up more room than it should and causing even more joint pain in addition to the bone spur.
I got another steroid injection into my shoulder last week, in a new location, and it seems to be working much better than previous injections. The upside to this is that it means an easy arthroscopic surgery could fix one of the big shoulder issues, my rotator cuff pain. The MRI on my neck didn't show much, according to the orthopedist, but I'm in so much pain there's got to be something going on.

With all the Dr/MRI/follow up and misc other appointments I've had to take time off from going in to PT because there just aren't enough days in the week when you have to be home in time for 2.5 year old's afternoon naps. I'll get back in to see them this week and see what they can do to ease some of the neck/back pain so I can work on the shoulder some more. Hopefully soon we'll get a break, we all get the feeling it's one big puzzle and as soon as we find the right piece it'll all start to fall into place.