Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Saturday 2 August 2008

Update On Pain


Firstly, thank you for all your well wishes. I am overwhelmed!

I took Friday off. That always sounds like it was a bit gratuitous like, 'oh, I don't think I'll go in today' whereas I could no more have gone to work than flown. Lying on the sofa was an effort. Everything was an effort. There was nowhere to lie that didn't cause pain.

I have meds in the house so I took anti-inflammatories and pandeine forte, which enabled me to lie still with a dull ache rather than the blinding pain, and I phoned the doctor.

Driving to the docs was fun. NOT. Actually, before that, getting dressed was fun! This is a new doctor so I wasn't quite sure how I should feel about him helping me UNdress but it was relatively amusing between the tears.

He gave me a shot in the shoulder which has helped immensely (see how I type now?) but feels there is more to it than bursitis as the pain down the arm is atypical. The top of my bicep is extremely tender to touch and a lot of the discomfort now involves bending the elbow. I'm ok when the arm is straight and relatively ok when its bent at 90 degrees but the process of getting it to either of these positions is painful and leaves me with a nasty ache in my forearm or bicep, or both. I find lifting the right arm with the left is the best method.

Possible prognosis include a partially torn bicep ligament or some neck involvement which is pinching a nerve down the arm. Although some of the excruciating pain I felt before reminded me of nerve pain, this dull ache is more like someone has kicked me in the arm so I suspect there's some muscle or ligament damage. I have to go for X rays and ultra sound on Monday at 8.30am. Meanwhile I'm popping pills and it does seem relatively 'easier'. The arm I mean, not the pills.

So what has caused this untimely 'lay-off' is the $1,000 question. Well, I did go to the gym on Tuesday and do a light weights class which involved a lot of pumping and rowing movements. I wasn't sore on Weds though, which I thought I would be. I remember having a slight twinge in the biceps on Weds night but it was Thursday morning when I woke up and thought, Miss Clavell style, 'something is not right'.

The most frustrating thing is having enforced leisure time and insufficient limbs to do much with it. There is so much to be done around the house and any amount of school work to be prepared but I am coming to the end of my typing tolerance now.

I have started a webquest sort of thing for year 10 as we kept running into problems with the school's firewall blocking sites. I also needed to steer them towards user friendly sites as they get overwhelmed by the amount of text on some sites. It's a work in progress but I'd be interested in feedback and ideas.

http://year10roadtrip.wordpress.com
(yes, I've gone over to the opposition as they have 'pages' with top tabs. Maybe blogger has pages but I haven't worked out how to add them)
Please bear in mind that I was just getting going on this when my arm started playing up so it is nowhere near finished. Also I imported the word docs so the formatting is not right and there are colours where I didn't mean for there to be colours etc...

Anyway, you get the general idea.

image credit

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surprising that you are in so much pain but have no incident on which to blame it.....sorry to hear you are so uncomfortable!

Oh, the matter I emailed you about - not being able to get to your - seems to have corrected itself!

Good luck with all the tests on Monday - good luck with the pain until then!
Elisa

Anonymous said...

By the way - just checked on your year 10 project website - I LOVE IT!

I think it is a great way to narrow down their searches so they are not overwhelmed. I love that it is on the computer since so much is accomplished online these days.

GREAT PROJECT!!!
Elisa

Andi said...

First of all, I really hope your arm gets better soon! That kind of pain is makes every single thing so difficult...I hope you find out an official prognosis soon, and that it is something easy to correct!
Next, I LOVE the webquest page. I realize that you were just starting it, but it really looks nice. I think this is such a great idea. If this does not completely captivate them, I do not know what will! Take care...keep resting and OBEY the doctor's orders ;)

Andi said...

P.S. I forgot to tell you how i laughed at the mention of Ms. Clavell...I read that, and thought to myself, "hmmm...that name sounds familiar to me...I should know it...why do I know it..." but I could not for the life of me remember why it sounded familar to me. Then I followed your link...I used to read those books to the daughter so many years ago! I studied French for years, studied abroad even, and loved childrens' things that had to do with France. Thanks for the sweet memory.

Miss Betty Fjord said...

My dearest Arizaphale. ARE YOU MAD!!!!!! I think the web-site is great and easy to move around. But the URL!!!! All it would take is one enterprising student (and OK - I know that might be a stretch) to google the interesting word "arizaphale" and you've just given them acces to your blog. CHANGE THE ADDRESS!!!! Love ya xx

Anonymous said...

Hope that it's starting to get better.

Just one thing about your "Road Trip" site. Do you really want to give you students an opportunity to connect this site with you? Food for thought.

Arizaphale said...

Er... I was thinking they would access it as an icon on the school network and it didn't occur to me that any of them would even look at the URL. You maybe right of course all of you.....not quite sure what to do about it now....

Christina said...

Ow, ow, OW! I'm glad it is resolving itself. The website sounds great - but it won't let me see it??