I have treated my right shoulder quite poorly over the years.
I threw a lot of baseballs back in the day, culminating in a stupid softball heave from dead center field to home plate, on the fly, that tore my rotator cuff when I was 25 years old. No surgery then; it just limited my football tossing with my four kids when they were teenagers.
On a hike up to Mt. San Antonio (10,000 feet), again with the kids, I lugged a lot of weight in my backpack, which wasn’t balanced correctly to shift the load to my hips. The result: a Winged Scapula (a nerve injury).
Once with the kids, we body-surfed the nasty shore break at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. Showing off, I bailed on a wave too late, flipped and landed on my outstretched right hand…basically a pole plant, and the impact went right up my arm. Result: chipped bone in elbow.
Later, in my equestrian days, I was chasing down a steer in an arena when Louie (my horse) made a sharp right turn at the fence, I got tossed, and landed on my right arm extended, palm first, in the dirt. That one re-tore my partically-healed rotator cuff, and I had to have it surgically repaired.
In between those incidents, I swam the butterfly, took some nasty water ski falls, blew out a vertebral disc snow skiing, golfed, and bowled. Anything for a thrill (or to abuse my right shoulder and neck).
Today, I spent some time with the local physical therapist. My pain specialist doctor (Dr. Rachel Allen, the same lady that fixed Charlie’s crushed L-3 vertebra recently) is having me see the therapist as part of a treatment regime related to chronic pain in my neck…right side, of course.
“Rob”, my P.T. guy, stuck me with a bunch of acupuncture-type needles, hooked them up to a battery, and tortured me for 20 minutes. It’s called “Dry Needling”, and it’s supposed to relax and heal knotted muscles, tendons, and nerves in the right shoulder area.
It didn’t hurt, per se, but was a bit uncomfortable when he stuck the needles in, wiggled them around, and then raised the amps on the power unit until I said, “No Mas!”
The dry needling is only part of my right shoulder/neck repair journey. I have also changed pain meds, will be doing some neck exercises, and will be seeing Dr. Allen in a week to discuss the full set of x-rays that I had done last week. I could have bone spurs in my neck. That wouldn’t be too good; let’s hope I don’t have those.
(Although…Donald Trump had bone spurs, and look what they did for him.)
Luckily, my neck pain problem is sporadic, not continuous.
(Again, like Trump’s. He only suffered from them while he was eligible for the military Draft during the Vietnam War. Then, they miraculously disappeared. What a lucky guy!)
As for me, I can go several weeks without much bother, then my neck will hurt like Hell for a week. Opioid drugs don’t even work when that’s happening. I just have to grin and bear it for 4 to 7 days.
I wish I’d had this pain back in 1969…at the military induction center.