Right shoulder injury....1st time WC

[cindy1sttimewc]

Hi Sparkey,

Thanks for sharing and encouraging me. I think I get this false sense of hope that this injury will be temporary when I take several ibuprofen. I honestly feel good when I take those. I can use my arm. I have much more strength. I do not have pain except an occasional sharp pain if I move it a certain way, but as soon as the IB wears off, omg that is when the malaise (tired) comes back, my arm feels so weak.......like it weighs a ton. I just want to lay in bed and do nothing. I have been icing it and using a large heating pad which I myself bought at walmart for $15 and that gives some pain relief........but I should NOT after 4 weeks be still using IB. I know that Naproxen, Aleve, Acetaminophen, etc., should not be taken for prolonged periods.........they are only meant for temporary measures. Because my pain continues after 4 weeks, something more has to be wrong than just bicep tondonitis. I am trying not to get depressed about this because I have never really had any major health challenges except for cervical spondylosis in C-4, and C-5. My cervical region in no longer curved but straight up and down. I have learned to managed that occasional stiffness and pain. And I have been running 12 miles, 4 times a week with that condition. But my shoulder is different. It just feels different. You just know when something is not right in your body. I think it is rotator cuff. People get bicep tondonitis as overcompensation because something is injured in rotator cuff.

When I broke my pinky toe last May (my first broken bone ever), I only needed to take a mild pain reliever for just 2 days. And it healed nicely in 3 weeks (I worked in a LTC facility during that time with a limp) and in 6 weeks I was able to start running on it again. I went back to running 12 miles. This is why I just know that there is a tear in the tendon. I had PT yesterday and early this morning I woke up @ 3am with alot of pain and stiffness. I can not imagine bicep tondonitis causing this much trouble.

You mentioned RSD. What is that. And as far as mileage, I think I am just going to change PTs because this PT I am going to is about 30 miles away. I am working light duty still and have only 14 hours a week. And yes, I did not pay some of my credit card bills this month because there is not enough money. I should be entitled to some wage benefit. My employer gave me my claim# but I have heard nothing from the IC or an adjustor. But yes, you are right I do need to look into doing something else. I have been a nursing assistant for too long now and most of the time, you do not get respect even though you bust your (Jayne's lame attempt to bypass the Bad Word Filter) because most facilities are understaffed. I remember one job I had out in Northwestern PA and it was an agency that sent me to a local nursing home and on my first night they switched assignments on me. I was ticked off but gave them the benefit of the doubt. Then on the next night they threw me out there to do an entire assignment on my own (not even knowing anything about the patients, yet expecting me to know) and I was so pissed off that I decided to quit but not before I told the nursing supervisor off. She basically ranted and raved about all the great policies in her facility and after she was done flapping her mouth I looked at her said, *let me ask you a LUCID question, how do you expect to implement these so-called great policies if you do not even STAFF your facility properly*. Well she was so ticked off at me but she knew I was right, darn it. I thought to myself *what kind of MINDLESS operation to these people have going on here* and I was happy to leave. Unfortunately, you find that alot in healthcare. Home care tends to be a little different (you do not have to deal with all the mindless crap of office politics), which is what I am doing now.

My pop is a retired M.D. His speciality was dermatology or skin. He did work in several emergy clinics and could not stand how much politics he too witnessed in medicine..........you know how the docs can not practice real medicine because the ICs are telling THEM what to do, even though the doc is the one with the training not the freaking IC. BUT, That is the only way they get paid, and that is why they capitulate to the demands. The whole system is corrupt because profits are more important than people. Even Alex Trevec comes on TV in an ad to sell life insurance and says it is only 99 cents per unit. Can you imagine.........people are considered units now and patients are no longer patients (as in the olden days) but are now considered consumers. Personally, I think it is pathetic and unfortunately those people that actually DO care and love to find correct diagnosis, because it is actually rewarding, are the minority. My pop was like that. If people could not pay their bills, he would work with them or either do it for free. His only concern was to find the right diagnosis to properly treat the patient. Right now though he has his own issues with diabetes and he is an amputee. I am going to see him in a couple weeks to get some antibiotics, and I will show it to him then.

This is why I keep posting here. I have my good days, being positive and then I have my bad days........where I think this is going to take forever. When will I be able to start running again. I love to run so much........I have been a runner for 16 years so this is really hard for me. But I know others on here are struggling too. There is no joy in pain and injury. It sticks.

Thanks for letting me vent and thanks for listening to my long posts!
Cindy