My right shoulder has been hurting for some time now, around 2 months maybe. It’s the part on my upper back by the shoulder blade. I think it is RSI (repetitive stress injury). It hurts the most when I use the mouse. The pain is dull but present. A few times it has started to cause this weird sensation down my arm – I want to say tingly but maybe numbing. At one point, I didn’t even want to use my right arm because it was bothering me so much. At the same time, I didn’t want to use my left arm because I didn’t want to hurt that shoulder either. The problem seems to be that my chair is either not high enough or that my keyboard/mouse is not low enough. At the old work I got a keyboard tray but I left not long after that. At the new place it took some time for them to get me a tray. Sometimes it’s annoying because the chair will be able to go high enough but then because of the arm rests, you can’t scoot your chair in. Sometimes you can remove the arm rests. Other times, if your chair can go high enough, then your feet stop touching the ground completely which is bad too.
Anyway, it has been bothering me for so long that it started to hurt even when I wasn’t at the computer. It would hurt when I would drive because my arm had to be extended to the steering wheel. It would hurt when I would eat for the same reason. Any type of motion that did not leave my shoulder blade in the relaxed position hurt. I started to apply icy hot on it at night before I went to sleep but didn’t want to do it during the day because I would stink. I didn’t even want to use the salon pas at night because those still make you stink in the morning – but I gave up because it was bothering me so much.
Why don’t you go to the doctor? Well, I want to but I don’t because football season is coming up. The last thing I want is the doctor to tell me I can’t use my arm or play football. And another reason is that I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be any help. They would just tell me to not use the computer, well I can’t because that is basically my job. So I haven’t gone. But since the pain still comes and it actually hurt for awhile in the beginning of Ultimate on Sunday, I decided to do it. Better to fix it now at the beginning of the season than in the middle or the end.
As I suspected, the doctor wasn’t much help. First off, I was late. My appointment was at 3:10 and they told me to check in at 3 which was fine. I had planned to leave the office at 2:45. Except, I didn’t get to leave the office until 2:50 and I underestimated the amount of time it took to get there, after all, the office is a bit farther from the doc’s office now. Plus with all the cars and such, I didn’t get there until like 3:12. I checked in and before I even sat down they called me in. The nurse scolded me. (Did you just make your appointment?) Well, they made it for me this morning. (You know you are supposed to get here 10-15 minutes before to check in.) I know, sorry, I had to leave work. Because I was late and was a squeezed in appointment (they had told me the earliest one was next week and I asked them to check for one sooner), they seemed to rush through my appointment. I had to put on a gown so the doctor could check my shoulder. I hate gowns. Anyway, he came in, I don’t think he even touched the shoulder to identify the pain. He asked me to rotate my arm a few times. Asked me to rotate my neck side to side. Listened to my heart once in the front and once in the back. And that was that. Physical therapy he said. Sounds like bursitis. We’ll shoot some xrays. Ok, and that was that. He didn’t really give any solutions or treatment to anything. Just told me to go get xrays and call physical therapy in 2 days.
Since my insurance is different before, I was kind of scared about getting the xray and how much it would cost. I was almost going to decline it but decided would probably be better to just check it. With the old insurance it would be free, but I thought that this one might cost me $50. Luckily it was only 10. So I went to radiology and had to put on another gown. Ew. The lady told me to stand back against this one xray machine and then she had positioned this other piece of machine with a light in front of my left shoulder. I didn’t really know what was in the back, but I thought it was slightly odd that the thing in the front was in front of my left shoulder when my right shoulder was the one that needed to be xrayed. But I didn’t want to be a smart ass plus I assumed that she knew what she was doing – after all, she is the one in charge. Then for the 2nd xray she told me to lift up my arm and I lifted up my right arm. She’s like, no the other arm. I’m like, it’s my right shoulder. She’s like, oh. Confirmed, she fails. She super fails. Good thing this wasn’t surgery!!! So then, instead of saying anything else, she was like, oh I have to take the first one over because your necklace was in the way. Really? My necklace was in the way? Is it true that it can get in the way or did she just want to retake the first one because she messed up and didn’t want to admit it?! This lady wasn’t very friendly to begin with. I ended up taking a total of 4 xrays with 1 repeat. They said they would have the results in 5 days. FIVE DAYS?! What if something was wrong??? I highly doubt it, but that seemed kind of odd. Anyway, I’m not sure what they were looking for in the shoulder anyway to warrant an xray. Could sometihng really be broken?? Hmm, don’t know, but I doubt it.
So, I’m left with a print out on my doctor’s visit summary on what bursitis is and how to treat it but the doctor didn’t even tell me anything. I was wondering if they just want my money. Doctor’s visit here, xray here, physical therapy there. Really? There has been no solution to the problem. You fail. Or rather, I’m the one that fails because my shoulder still hurts!