Elizabeth's Shoulder Updates : January 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

School and Rescheduling

The date of surgery has now been rescheduled for March 5. This way, one of the weeks that I would be out of school for recovery will be March break. However, even with this, I will be missing up to 3 weeks of school. After talking with my adviser and the Department Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department, it was decided that I will take a reduced class load of 12 credits rather than 20 and make up the other two classes next year. If I get back from surgery earlier than planned, the Department Chair has agreed to give me a project or some extra work to do at the end of the semester. Since the surgery is being delayed for a month, I will be doing some basic Physical Therapy before which will hopefully help me towards a more speedy recovery.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

News and Surgery Scheduling

As it says in the description, this blog will be used for updates on my shoulder. You can see my full diagnosis and history in the "About My Shoulder" section. In case it is needed in viewing my updates, some pictures showing the anatomy of the shoulder can be found on the left. As of now, I have surgery scheduled in Kentucky the 22nd of January. Our most recent discovery is that the time that I am expected to be out of school is four weeks, which is a lot, especially having only 15 weeks of school, five classes, and four labs. At this time we are considering my options, hoping to find a realistic way for me to attend school next semester, which will probably require rescheduling the surgery.

Description

This blog will be used from now on to update people about my shoulder. It is often difficult to remember to update everyone who would like to know what is happening with my shoulder and honestly, sometimes I just don't feel like doing it. Furthermore, articulating information quickly and smoothly has never really been a strong suit of mine. Thus, giving people the information that they want to know in a way they can understand it is always challenging. Feel free to ask any comprehension questions in the comments of a post.

About My Shoulder

My diagnosis: My diagnosis is scapular dyskinesis caused by a detached scapular muscle, a separated AC joint and possibly a hooked superior medial angle. What this essentially means is that my shoulder blade does not move properly. It often gets "stuck" causing it to stick out from my back (a position that I typically call "out"). Once it is in this position, I cannot get it back to its normal position on its own and need somebody to put it "back in" for me, which is pretty easy as long as you are not too squeamish. To do this, I just need someone (they do not have to be a doctor) to essentially shrug my shoulder (I don't have the ability to do it myself). This is painful, but necessary.

How it happened: When I was eleven, in the fall of 2005, I jumped off a swing and landed on outstretched arms. After this, I began to have shoulder pains. It is believed that this is when my scapular muscle became detached. I initially only had pain in many places on my shoulder and a bit of cracking under my shoulder blade. This proved to make it difficult to diagnose what was wrong with my shoulder. However, by the summer of 2010 it progressed into getting stuck like it does today. I have been attending Boston Children's Hospital since this time. Starting in the fall of 2010, I was able to control my shoulder enough to learn how to fix it myself and do what I wanted. However, at the end of January 2012, I crashed sledding, separating my AC joint (Type II separation). Since then, physical therapy has not been able to get it under control. It was agreed that surgery needed to be done to solve the problem. I had one surgery June 2012 to get a better idea about what was going on inside my shoulder. They could not find anything significant besides some inflammation. They gave me a cortisone shot to reduce inflammation. However, though it reduced the problem for a short period of time, it did not fix the problem, and my shoulder progressed back to its original condition by the end of August. After more testing, it was decided that I may have a hooked superior medial angle. I was then sent to a doctor in Lexington, KY who specializes in scapulothoracic joint issues. It was there where the final diagnosis and surgery was decided on.

Some statistics:

7 years

7 doctors

~6 x-rays

3 MRI's

2 CT Scans

2 EMG's