Yesterday I had my final physical therapy appointment and was deemed back to normal. It only took three full, painful months between onset to recovery. Once I started PT I noticed a difference and I went to 15 sessions, including my “discharge” appointment yesterday morning. I’ll be honest, I’m not quite 100% yet. I’m at something more like 95%. But the fact is I didn’t want to use up all my alloted annual PT sessions on the off-chance that something happened that required some PT later in the year. PT definitely helped but I do still occasionally get a very mild twinge when I’ve been sitting at my desk without moving for an extended period of time, or when I catch myself leaning on my left elbow too long. But the pain is at a 1, compared to the past 3 months when the pain was closer to 6-7 on the pain scale. Infinitely better. And going forward, I know what exercises to do at home to alleviate the problem going forward if I start to feel significant pain.
It’s refreshing to wake up in the morning and NOT have my arm be numb, or stiff to the point where I can’t raise my arm to wash my hair in the shower. It’s nice to be able to sit normally on the sofa instead of having 2-3 pillows propped up behind me so that my ice pack sits in just the right place to provide relief.
Unfortunately, while my left shoulder is back to normal, my right arm has a severe case of tennis elbow going on right now. Not sure if it’s because I’ve been compensating for the other side’s shoulder, or if it is something as stupid as the button on my new cellphone being tougher to push in compared to my old phone. Either way, when I use my right arm, it has been painful on and off for several weeks now. My PT did give me an exercise to do when the pain initially started, and it did help – but the pain came back two-fold this past weekend in particular. Not sure what I did to exacerbate the injury.
The one main negative to this whole thing is the hit my HSA will take. I just found out yesterday that in addition to the $20 copays that I’ve been paying, I will owe another $850 for the portion of PT that my health insurance does not cover. For those keeping score, I spent a boatload of my HSA on CootieGirl’s wisdom teeth removal earlier this summer, which meant that braces were going possibly be put on hold while I bulk up my HSA again. Now that I’m forking out another $850, I will be cutting it VERY CLOSE on being able to pay for braces upfront for both kids next summer. And that’s only if we don’t have any other medical issues between now and next June.
Basically, folks, I’m falling apart. Physically and (HSA) financially – not mentally. Yet. I’m sure the day will come for that soon enough.
