Ouch!

Another day has dawned…well, almost dawned. The sun, or even a hint of the sun is absent at this early hour. I do have my coffee though and that must mean that it’s morning time.

And this morning I have to go to the physical therapist for an hour of pain and misery. When I first mentioned this odd feeling in my shoulder, the doctor was quick to order x-rays and prescribe physical therapy. I was somewhat used to the occasional bit of pain and usually ignored it; after all, it went away. But now, because of “modern medicine” I get to experience the pain almost hourly now. There is no forgetting it!

The therapist tells me that it is the rotator cuff that is giving me the problem. It’s not torn; just loose. This allows the bone (ball) to move away from the socket in that joint (Impingement) when I do anything more than a simple extension of my arm. And the cure for that seems to be certain exercises that flex the muscles that hold that ball and socket together. Those same exercises also produce some major league pain that lasts until the next session with the therapist; where you get to do it all over again.

Googling “rotator cuff injury” produces 984,000 hits…more than I can read at this early hour! So I will stick with the best; the Mayo Clinic. And they have this to say… “The injury is also common among people whose jobs or hobbies include heavy demands on their shoulders, such as athletes, archers and people in the construction trades. Poor posture, especially as related to your shoulders hunched forward, also can contribute to rotator cuff injury. As you get older, your risk of a rotator cuff injury increases.

Most of the time, treatment involves self-care measures or exercise therapy. Other treatments include steroid injections and surgery.”

Darn! Another one of those age related things. Is there any ailment or complaint that I have that isn’t age related? What was that old saying? Oh, yes, “I would have taken better care of myself if I had known I was going to live this long.”