Elizabeth's Shoulder Updates : March 2014

Sunday, March 23, 2014

One Year (and 18 days)

So, its officially been over a year since surgery. I continue to do very well, and though I still struggle sometimes with endurance, coordination and tightness in my arm, I am progressing very steadily, which I am very happy with. The endurance and coordination are more full arm related, and surprisingly, the tightness that I get most tends to be in my forearm, but in reality, even those things are very minor. Oftentimes, I forget I had the issues that I did. I mean, the only reason it really comes up now is that I am currently taking one Freshman class at school this semester, because it was one of the two classes I didn't take the semester I had surgery. But, after this semester, I will be completely caught up, and will be able to move on from the ordeal further. I'm not saying I will try to forget the experience by any means, but it won't be something that affects my everyday life anymore.

I'm not sure I have ever said this here, but I was expected to get about 80% use back in my shoulder. Now, you may think, she was probably so excited to hear that after a year in a sling. You would to be wrong. I know that sounds weird, I mean, I had been told by multiple doctors that there was nothing they could do nothing for me, that this may be permanent. But, for some reason, it never affected me the way that hearing 80% did. Maybe I was in denial of what was happening to me. But really, I think the whole time I thought it was just I hadn't found the right doctor yet. To hear the right doctor, the expert, say 80%, crushed me. With every other appointment, I was just frustrated with the lack of knowledge about what was going on. With this appointment, I had officially lost something that I would probably never get back. In my head, I had not only lost 20% of my shoulder use, I had also lost the possibility of normal. I mean, usually I think that normal is overrated, but in this situation, that was not the case. I eventually got more used to the 80% idea in the months leading up to and after the surgery, and became grateful for what I had, but I always had that hope of 100%. Now, I have realized that I have the chance of getting that 100%. Out of any of the grades I have gotten in my life, the 95% I have in the area of Left Shoulder Post 2006, with the possibility of a 100%, is the one I am most happy about.

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