by Matthew Warlick | Jul 8, 2004 | Shoulder Blog
Well i think the cortizone is wearing off.
Today i hurt more than i have in a few weeks, and over the past 2 days my hand has been tingling mildly and getting that aching feeling. I took the day off from work in hopes of resting my shoulder and hand, and have such been informed that all missed time will now be docked from my vacation/sick time. It’s fair i suppose, but frustrating considering my likelihood is in jeopardy now. I’ve been exercising more, more to keep my mind off the pain than anything else, but it seems to at least be good for my overall morale.
I have another appointment July 23rd with a vascular specialist, perhaps he can help me pin down the cause of all this; weather it be Carpel Tunnel Syndrome , Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, or Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
Either way I’ve got at least another few months of being in pain, waiting on results and surgery recommendations. I’m beginning to firmly believe that doctors truly do only care about money.
All i’m asking is for someone to help fix me. It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask.
by Matthew Warlick | Jul 6, 2004 | Shoulder Blog
Today was great. I went out to the parent’s house in princeton and had home-grilled burgers with all the fixens. I went swimming for about an hour an came out of it with a nice tan. My shoulder did great, and it felt SO good to be in the water, actually using my arm to it’s full extent without having to support the weight. I think i’ll make that a weekly part of my regimen now. At least an hour in the pool on sundays. it’ll do me good.
by Matthew Warlick | Jul 1, 2004 | Shoulder Blog
So today i had two follow up appointment; one with Dr. Hansen who did the actual surgery, and one with dr. Burkhead, who i’m leaning to more as the doc who REALLY wants to help me, to fix whatever’s wrong with my shoulder.
The appointment with Dr Hansen went ok, i got the usual shpeal about Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and he recommended me to another doctor, a vascular specialist. That apointment isn’t until the 23rd of July. He basically said he is done with me, he won’t take the plate out, doesn’t recommend a resection. According to him i should just live with the pain forever. Bleh.
The appointment with Dr. Burkhead was a little more productive. He talked with me about the possible causes, pinched nerves, etc … I conveyed my reservations about having the clavicle resection, so he went over the entire procedure with me. In a best case scenario they remove the plate, shave a bit off of my collarbone, sow me back up and call it good. On the other hand, if the original fracture hasn’t healed, he wants to take out the entire broken piece, removing the ligaments attaching it, and then reattaching them to the end of the bone that’s there. The recovery time for this is 6 months to a year.
So to address the pain, he offered to give me a local anesthetic (lydecane) to help with the pain. Talk about scary, they shove this 3 inch log needle into you, them move it around and give you various injections all over the place, then they take it out and do it all over again in another spot. So after doing this and talking about postponing the surgery he offered to give me a cortizone injection as well, hoping that it could provide pain relief for up to 6 weeks, which would of course ROCK BALLS.
So i went home and took some valium, laid down and concentrated on the pulsing in my shoulder. Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to tell a difference for the better.
