Bursitis is Still Blowing

Firstly, let’s just acknowledge how awkward the two people in my featured image look. Look at them. Up there ^^. So, so awkward. To the point where I feel bad for them. You should too. Poor stock image people.

Moving on.

Back in June I wrote about how I was suffering from a case of bursitis in my shoulder. Well, as of today the pain still persists and it’s very strange. One morning I’ll wake up and the pain will be sharp and stabby in my lower shoulder. The next morning I might wake up and it’ll be a burning sensation over my entire shoulder. Or the next morning I’ll wake up and it’ll only be a slight twingey feeling as though it’s going away. But then that night it’ll come rarin’ back. I wake up stiff, but yet have complete pain-free range of motion. Muscle relaxants didn’t help at all, but cold packs do provide temporary relief.

Last night I went to my first session of physician-requested physical therapy. I told him what’s been going on, steps I’ve taken to try and resolve it on my own and with a doctor, and how nothing has helped thus far.

“Fix me!” I demanded.

Forty-five minutes later, the PT had an inkling of what was going on (in a nutshell, he said the muscles and the nerves in my shoulder are not playing nicely together), and that he felt confident that in 4-6 weeks, going to PT 3x/week, I’ll be completely pain-free.

“My insurance doesn’t cover 4-6 weeks, 3x/week. It covers 20 visits and that’s it.”

“Well let’s do the 20 visits and we’ll take stock at that point and see what else needs to be done.”

During that 45 minutes he had me do various stretching moves, and did general strength testing with my arms. He then did some voodoo chiropractic deep tissue stuff that made me experience an 8 on the pain scale and then suddenly drop to a 1-2 a few moments later. That’s when he said he figured out what was going on.

I’m hopeful that the PT will work and fix the pain. It’s been going on for 2 months and is driving me crazy because each morning when I get up I don’t know if I’ll feel reasonably good and only need a couple of Motrin, or whether I’ll feel awful and need a combo of Motrin, OTC muscle ointment followed by a cold pack once I get to work.