Monday, June 9, 2008

Tendinitis

My left shoulder has been hurting at irregular intervals for at least four months. Over the last few weeks, it has been getting worse, to the point that it was getting unpleasant to lift my arms over my head for any reason (e.g., putting on a T-shirt). Putting a carry-on bag in the overhead compartment would have been completely out of the question.

So on Friday I went to the doctor about it. She said I have tendinitis. Until she pointed it out, I had never noticed that my shoulder has developed a clicking noise during certain motions.

Anyhow, long story short, she gave me a prescription for an NSAID, a physical therapy band and a list of stretching exercises. She also gave me a list of general stretches that don't involve the band, and it turns out that I've been doing some of them already.

So I hope to be normal again in a couple of weeks (or as close to normal as I get).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a thing in my neck/shoulder once that I was sure was some sort of horrible nerve/neck/paralysis/meningitis thing, but I also got a prescription for anti-inflammatories and stretching (+PT) and it helped! Hope that clears it up soon. Then you can tell HB about the benefits of stretching!

pk

BGreen said...

Some of the stretches we were doing in Improv class were on her sheet of stretches to combat this condition. And one in particular (stretching or extending the arm away from the body while stretching the neck and head in the other direction) was one suggested by Lynn Sofer at ACT to combat shoulder tightness in general.

Whooda thunk that acting warm-ups would have medical or therapeutic value?

BGreen said...

Make that "Lynne Soffer."