Yesterday afternoon was PT again. I've been working on putting some of the stretches into ordinary activities. For example, just to get my deodorant on, I've had to force my arms up along the door frames in the bathroom for years already, pulling them by climbing with my fingers, then stepping back a bit to make enough room for that little roll-on bottle. It makes it possible to do (so long as I keep gripping the door frame) which I'm pretty sure those around me appreciate. Now I even have to do the same thing without the bottle, once the hand is at a new level for as high as I can get it, not just step back but twist away towards the other door frame. I think the eventual goal is being able to reach the back of my head... comfortably? There are two of those for each arm, one high, one low. I can give it a go each time I head out of my bathroom - you know, the point in my life when I'm no longer in a hurry - and get that particular set of stretches in there several times a day.
So would you think it would be getting easier? The stretch a little longer? Less painful? How about if I told you I spent much of three days last week being pretty sure the right shoulder was self-dislocating again? Somehow that surprised my therapist yesterday when we were doing a bunch of stretches while I was lying down on her table.
It was an interesting session in itself, partly because of the horizontal position, partly because there was a lot of stretching and pulling to warm my shoulders up so we could get the extension I got at my last visit. But I managed a lot of conversation to distract us both from what was going on. She keeps telling me these are not supposed to hurt, and I should stop her when we get to that point. I kinda figured if I stop when it hurts I'd never get past the situation I'm currently in. Pain avoidance is how I got here! I'd started it by telling her how one of the homework stretches was getting put to use during last week week when there was a bunch of planting as my mail order iris and daylilies arrived. There was also a lot of pulling out of dead leaves around the bottoms of the current daylilies, done from the sitting in a chair position and reaching way forward, which turns it into a more upward stretch relative to my back, which I need. Those dead leaves pull out easily, but finding them all is a challenge. It's a long reach towards the center of the circular garden. Removing them allows visibility to find the newest sprouting of weeds as they show up against the newly bare dirt.
I plan to give her a pod or two of seeds in the fall, whether we're still working together or not. She was interested in my tall balloon flower plants. I can just drop them at the front desk with her name on the envelope. It should also include some names of varieties of other plants we discussed so she can look them up to see if she wants to locate her own. Ahh, the joys of finding a fellow gardener.
As a distraction, the topic worked really well during PT, and she managed to get me past the point where I'd start to try to pull back against her stretches, past the point where it hurt until I had to make it stop... but I wanted to finish my sentence first. Of course sometimes the "OW" just burst out.
There were times I needed her to move the arm being worked on back into normal resting position instead of me doing it. There was more pulling and tugging during the process and we made the joints stretch a few degrees past the last session, something they had to be worked on to achieve as they had tightened up again since then. But we made real progress by the end of the session.
Now I would have figured I'd be aching all over the place last night, even just sitting in my chair watching TV. Lying down to sleep should have been excruciating... but it wasn't. My shoulders were pleasantly numb last night. I was greatly encouraged.
Of course by 3AM it was a whole different story. I'd wake myself up from the tiniest motions, like pulling the covers up a bit as the house grew cooler, or pushing them back down as I got just a bit too warm after a short while. Apparently I do this in my sleep, only now it was waking me up.
Rudely! It's even messing up my dreams!
Rather than being able to go back to sleep in my bed, I needed a more vertical position. This means relocating to my recliner, which is where I'm writing from. Each morning I need to take my thyroid pill an hour ahead of taking anything else - no breakfast, coffee, or pain pills, and not just because the latter need food to be consumed with them. Last week I learned for the first time since 1985 that my cast iron stomach allowing for up to maximum recommended ibuprofin intake was not a guaranteed thing. I'd taken some at bedtime but without food, trying to keep my blood sugar levels down in the morning. Minding the diet is easier than minding yet another medication. What I got in exchange for that slip was a very sour stomach. So no more skipping being mindful of enough food intake with the pills, as well as lower pill intake to keep it easier to juggle both needs at the same time. The cost of that turns out to be less pain control. Ma-a-y-y-ybe a little less stretching homework.
PT shares the same roof as my primary doc. On my way out yesterday I stopped at her scheduling desk and made an appointment with my primary to discuss getting the same non-narcotic pill Steve is currently taking which is doing wonders for his pain control, which in turn does wonders for his mobility. Some days he even ignores his walker! Of course that means he tends to overdo it a little and gets to endure a couple days needing it again, but I'm sure he'll get the new improved normal balance worked out. There has been so much time where we doubted he'd have any good days again.
My primary already gave me a referral to a pain doc. Unfortunately the online system they use for medical communications is a bear - to be very very polite. But since I'm not asking for a narcotic, because I want to try to avoid one of those until, say, dealing with post-surgery stuff, so I can continue to drive legally, I figure she can prescribe pain meds without that particular complication, without signed contracts to promise not to overuse and abuse the meds that going on narcotics would require these days. It's a bonus that a drive to her office is twenty miles shorter as a round trip than the closest pain doc. If my primary wants to just go for one bottle and reassess, fine. But I know the stuff works because (shhhhh, don't tell) Steve let me have a single pill to try. One with breakfast, lasts the entire day, no needing a dozen pills to get through a full day and still not eliminate pain noticeably until compared with a full stop of pain meds.
My doc has an opening Monday. I'll be in after work.
Meanwhile this morning my body is overreacting to the extra stretches and pulls and pushes from yesterday's 45 minute session. By now the thyroid pill has had its hour to work, so I'm going to go get my morning pills, coffee, and breakfast together and have a real start to my day while I start proofing this for posting.
Owww..... But there's time for enough pain relief to tolerate going off to work.
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