Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

You may have noticed that I haven't written about the health issues a lot over the past year. The problems I have are still here, still troublesome, but they've become the norm-so I don't talk about them much.

The foot issue was mentioned last month, but there's another problem that cropped up before that did-my right shoulder. I've had issues off and on for years with my neck and shoulders, usually when I am stressed, one or the other will spasm. This is usually accompanied by a huge knot just under my shoulder.

For nearly two months, my right shoulder has been giving me grief. The pain is similar to those spasms, but different because this time, the upper arm is affected. There is no knot.

When you tune out pain, gradual increases aren't so noticeable. It had been a problem for a while when I went to go choose my backpack for school, because I'd even commented to Ed that the only good thing about doing it that day was that my neck and shoulder were bad, so I could determine which bag would be best when (not if) that problem arose.

It wasn't until yesterday that it came to a head. I had run errands both Saturday and Sunday, culminating with grocery shopping for Mom and Jane. Thankfully, I had Chef with me, because the trip through the store was hard. Very hard. Lifting my arm higher than my chest hurt. Grabbing anything from over my head was the worst, but I had to suck it up and do it, they needed the diet brown liquid and aardvark (diet, please) that were on the list.

It resulted in doing something I haven't done since the first week of April, 2008.



I took a Vicodin.


Yes, I raised the white flag, the pain has won.

The good news is that one of the advantages of being a college student is that I have access to a good health insurance plan. Many of my doctors are in the employ of my college, so I can see them without a copay. The neurologist I was seeing? He went off on his own two years ago to develop the RSD/CRPS Institute. Fortunately, one phone call to Nurse M and I have the name of someone to see.

I'm making the appointment as soon as the offices open tomorrow.

If I can hold out and be the 2% girl a little while longer, the knot in my foot and the shoulder pain are not the RSD spreading. (More like 20-30% girl, because almost 80% of us with RSD experience a spread of affected areas) This time, I suspect I'm just one of the crowd.

I wish I could end this with something witty, but for now, all I can say is OWWWWWWWW.





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