Oh, frozen shoulder!

Great new!  No surgery is needed on my shoulder.  Whew!  I was NOT looking forward to dragging this out one minute longer than necessary and I can't imagine starting all over with another surgery.

So, what is causing me all the trouble, you ask?  Frozen Shoulder, otherwise known as adhesive capsulitis.

In the case of me, they believe it was from the high impact fall when I fractured my arm.  My MRI impression reads:

• Extensive adhesive capsulitis with pericapsula edema and capsualar thickening
• Mild acromioclavicular osteoarthritis
• Moderate subacromial and subdeltoid bursitis
• Low-grade inrerstitial and possible bursai surface partial tear far anterior supraspinatus tendon
• Degenerative glenoid labrum and tendinosis of the extracapsular biceps tendon

So, I got a cortisone injection and I will be stretching, stretching and stretching some more.

Unfortunately, it takes a long time to regain range of motion after frozen shoulder, but I am reminded to be a "patient" patient.  I'm waiting for the radial nerve so I'll wait for the shoulder to show me some love, too.

16 weeks ... let's check the progress!

Today was another follow up and things are going really well with the fracture.  The bone continues to heal well and x-rays show new bone growth which is always what you want to see.  It's hard to see the fracture line in the original x-ray with all of the hardware but I am reminded again of what a terrible location the humerus broke.

the pink line represents the fracture - what a mess!

The Dr. is really happy with the recovering radial nerve.  The wrist continues to get a little stronger each week and now I patiently wait for the fingers to follow!  There was a resident from University of Iowa in the office today so much of my visit was spent educating him about the injury I had and the healing process.  I really like teaching moments because I always learn a little bit more, too.

My surgeon told the resident that he didn't remember the radial nerve showing signs of injury in the ER and the location of the fracture is not indicative of a radial nerve injury so he feels that the multiple surgeries in my arm as a child and scar tissue may have contributed to the trauma on the nerve as it was moved out of the way while they repaired the injury.  We will never know but it is very unusual for this particular fracture.  In fact, I was reading an article that said this type of fracture in adults is very unusual, too.  Like everything else with me -- it's "uncommon."  Shocker.  :)

So, now we try to figure out how to best heal the shoulder.  One MRI with contrast, one more follow up and one cortisone injection ..... never a dull moment!  We will meet and discuss only the shoulder one week from today.

15 weeks .. but who's counting?

Unless you experience this type of injury it's a bit difficult to explain how .. s l o w..  the progress can be, but the key word is PROGRESS!  It has been 15 weeks and I am finally starting to see some sign of life in my hand and wrist.  I can now not only lift my wrist, but I can flex it back a little and lift my pointer finger, too!

The finger is very interesting.  I can lift it if I have some bend in the hand, but there is nothing happening if my wrist/hand are flat on the table.

The tops of my knuckles are really red and inflamed .. another little thing I expected to improve but doesn't ever seem to change.  Now that I have a little more strength in the wrist I try to wear my dynamic splint a little less and try to use my hand in hopes of getting some blood flowing and hopefully the swelling will improve.

If I put my hand flat on the table and try to lift my finger .. nothing!
I can lift my wrist, so my guess is that I just need to continue to be
patient and it will start working!

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1.02.28

The power of positive thinking .. and a little help from your friends!

I've been told that I can obsess.  I choose to believe that I simply crave information.  This is my body and I want to understand exactly what is going on.  The way I look at it, I can spend a lot more time on my "case" than my physician can.  Heck, I only have on patient: ME!  At the same time, I have learned from other experiences in the medical world that it is not an exact science and I appreciate that.  I am fortunate to have the time and desire to learn.

I think it is important to listen to my doctor and physical therapist and do exactly what they tell me, but I am choosing to take that extra step and educate myself.  The funny thing about Radial Nerve Palsy is that I can find a lot of medical articles discussing the "science" behind it, but what has been far more helpful is sharing with other patients who have had similar injuries.  In fact, it's been amazing!  Everything is so much better with help from your friends and I have met two amazing people ... enter Paul and Laura!  Paul (from the UK) is ahead of me in his recovery and Laura (from VT) fractured her arm about 8 weeks ago.  I have gotten great tips from both of them and have been able to share what works - and doesn't for me - and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  THANK YOU both :)

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1.02.28