I saw my orthopaedist today. He’s a great guy and as pleasant as when we parted company just over eight years ago.
There are big differences between the left shoulder, which he repaired perfectly back in November of 1998, and the current discomfort with the right shoulder, which had me there today. The left one had a traumatic injury in 1990 and I lived with eight years of escalating chronic pain. This time, there’s just a little injury from wear and tear.
What’s really wrong with my shoulders is poor design. They’re a little bit too square and set back just a little bit too far. As a result, the ball at the top of the arm bone is always pushing forward against the socket. Eventually, the edges of the socket start to fray and the sensation is just as nasty as a hangnail.
Anyway, one of the reasons I like this doctor so much is that he believes me. I told him what I thought was happening and how the current sensation compared to the one before. Since he’d seen the inside of my left shoulder and gotten rid of all those frayed bits, and since the x-rays today didn’t show anything (they didn’t last time, either), he’s happy to prescribe a couple of sessions of physical therapy and let me continue my exercises at home after that.
I may yet end up with having surgery someday, but if I strengthen everything else, I’ll probably be able to put it off for awhile.
The knowledge which comes from experience is a wonderful thing. This time, it’s all much less scary.
