#2645 MRI results

Back on Sept 29, which is two months ago now, I had an MRI on my left shoulder. (I wrote about it in post #2611.) I was waiting and waiting for my GP to let me know the results, but it turns out that he didn't receive the results automatically, even though I requested for the results to be sent to him directly. I figured out that I could get the results from the hospital's patient portal (that no one told me about), and it said I have an "intermediate grade tear" in my rotator cuff.  I got an email from my doctor, dated 11/24 that I just read that said, "It looks like you have a tear in your rotator cuff. I have sent a referral to an orthopedist and someone will be contacting you," to which I kind of rolled my eyes and said out loud, "I wonder when that will happen." 

Now my thoughts are traveling along the lines of finding an orthopedist myself, maybe even at the hospital where I had the MRI, and just figuring it out on my own. I'm sure that when I find an orthopedist who takes my insurance, my GP will write a referral to that surgeon. 

I'll be honest: the thought of surgery is pretty unpleasant. Actually, it's not the surgery itself that is unpleasant, it is the aftermath. It's the post-surgery pain. It's the thought of having my left arm in a sling for several weeks. It's the physical therapy. 

On the other hand, the discomfort and pain that comes from making a sudden, inadvertent movement or lifting something that isn't a problem for my right arm but causes my left arm to shriek (if arms could shriek) is a pretty crappy way to live. Since the injury occurred, I have been conscientious of limiting the movement and babying it along. On a pain scale, when I'm just sitting around, the pain is around 1. I definitely feel something is different in the left shoulder than the right shoulder.  When I do something that causes the arm to shriek, the pain level is between six and seven.

There is, however, limited range of motion that I see and feel in lots of ways. For example, I can't prop myself up on my left elbow when I'm laying down. Downward dog in yoga is a hard no. When I was in a pool, I couldn't put my arms up on the edge of the pool and stare into space. Here is a pic of Lizzie doing it. I wasn't quite able to keep my left arm in place. 

You might be saying, "So what? Prop yourself on your right elbow. Don't do yoga. How often are you in a pool, anyway?" Those are all valid points, and I totally agree. The thing is that there are regular, everyday things that cause pain. A few examples are unhooking my bra, washing my hair, and sometimes just putting on a sweater. I can tell you,  as someone who has lived with pain for many years until I just couldn't deal with it anymore, it's no fun to be limited in what you can do. It's no fun to be in pain. I think that the longer this tear goes unfixed, the more painful it will become. 

How's that for a bummer thought to wrap up the four-day weekend? 

To be continued...