On Coming Unglued

Today I had a steroid injection in the left shoulder joint – yesterday was the right joint. (Just as an aside, if you need an injection in your shoulder, go to Exact Radiology in Inala – I got my appointments weeks earlier than the Ipswich region clinics were offering, and they were quick and very good at the actual injection)
The pain relief hasn’t been as spectacular as I’d hoped, but I can feel some improvement and apparently it’ll take another day or so to finally see where I am. I’ll take “improvement which leads to greater ability to cope” over “huddling in a chair whimpering in pain” anyday!
I got to face the screen today while I was having the procedure, which was quite fascinating to watch. Apparently my shoulder capsule was badly “glued up”, so I got to watch the needle going in, and the adhesion being forced apart (sort of blown up like a balloon). It’s uncomfortable but not necessarily painful – you get anaesthetic as well… that’s been wearing off over the evening, though 😦 It seems it’s quite rare to get it in both shoulders at the same time. I feel so special! 😛

On the up side, we bought a Pandan Cake at a bakery in the shopping centre across the road.

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Isn’t it pretty? 🙂
An interesting, if not very strong, taste. The green colouring is meant to be from the juice of the pandanus leaf, but some are made using pandanus extract and green food colouring. Nice for a bit of afternoon tea, though!

Published in: on December 18, 2014 at 8:01 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Frozen

It’s been a bit of a year… health issues here and there, drifting into “Can’t Be Bothered” the last part of the year..
I’ve had various visits to doctors, with no particularly helpful outcomes. Some things resolve, some don’t. For the last few months I’ve been progressively shutting down – pain, stiffness, lack of interest. Finally, I have an answer, and a light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂

Heard of “Frozen”? I have frozen shoulders! How cool am I?
Seriously, though, it’s been a bit difficult… if you want to read about what it is, here’s a link.
Basically, there’s three stages –
Freezing – increasing stiffness, lots of pain.
Frozen – Stiffness, but pain receding.
Thawing – Mobility increasing, pain returning.
There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but resolution of all three stages appears to take 1-3 years. I’m in the first stage, possibly sliding into second. The pain is… hard to describe.. and can be caused by a random movement, or just lightly bumping against something… sometimes even just sitting still for a period of time can trigger it. I can’t stretch my arms out to the side very far, and behind not at all. This makes things such as dressing oneself, washing/brushing hair, and basic sleeping (can’t stay in one position for too long) difficult to impossible.

I’d love to just Let It Go! 😉

What’s in the future?
I’ll probably be getting corticosteroid injections into the shoulder joints sometime next week, which should hopefully reduce or eliminate the need for constant pain medication. I also seem to have thyroid issues (one of the possible underlying factors for frozen shoulders), so I’ve started taking vitamins/minerals/herbal preparation drops to revive and support my thyroid/adrenal/hypothalamus/pancreas. I probably won’t be running marathons by next week, but things are looking up! 🙂

So, if you see me, and I look like I’ve dressed in a dark room, using a random tree branch to brush my hair, it’s not that I’m not trying – I just can’t do it as well as normal…

Here’s to becoming Un-Frozen!

Published in: on December 13, 2014 at 2:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
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