The Mosquitoes Won

I know, I’m STILL going on about mosquitoes in February, but they are still causing me pain!

See, here’s what happened.  It was early September and I was laying in bed in the wee hours of the morning when I felt a mosquito bite on my back.  It was about 3am – 4am and I was not ready to wake up yet but it needed some serious scratching!  Problem was, it was in that annoying area of my back that I couldn’t reach properly… and let this be a lesson on why you shouldn’t bother trying when you aren’t fully awake.

For some reason, in my half-asleep state, I thought it would be a good idea to twist my arm and then use the pressure of my body against the bed to give it just an extra wee push so I could reach the bite to scratch it.  I know, stupid.  Thinking about it now in the mosquito free winter months it seems ridiculous, but all I can do is blame it on the yearly insanity I suffer due to these flying bloodsucking bastards.  Anyhow, I felt something get uncomfortable in my shoulder so I stopped, rolled on my back and wiggled around like a fool.  By some miracle I even managed to go back to sleep.

When I did get up I didn’t realize anything was wrong until I tried to put my bra on.  Reaching behind me to close it was pretty uncomfortable.  Then when I raised my arms to put my shirt on, yeah that hurt too.  I didn’t give it too much attention because it wasn’t major pain, just discomfort and I figured I probably slept on it badly.  It hurt right in the front where my arm attached to my body, like right in the front of my armpit almost.  Annoying.

It didn’t hurt when my arm was just hanging there, or if I moved it in moderate amounts. It just hurt when I tried to do things like put deodorant on the other side, put a shirt on, take a shirt off, pull the covers over myself in bed… that sort of stuff.  The rest of the time it was ok!

So for weeks after that it stayed at that uncomfortable stage.  I still went to aqua jogging, wanting to punch the instructor every time she had us doing things with our arms above our heads.  I noticed after that it felt a little worse, but I figured it was because it was a little sore (like the rest of me) after having a bit of a workout.

Then in December I joined a gym and on my first workout he had me on the treadmill and then was going to work my upper body.  I don’t know what the machines are called but there is one where you put your arms out at your side bent upwards at the elbow, and you need to pull the thing together in front of you. You know the one?  Well, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Or maybe the straw that broke the camel’s shoulder?

Ok let’s be honest, the straw that broke the cow’s shoulder.

Anyhow, it was really strange how it felt, it was like there were gaps in my muscle.  I’d be pushing that thing together and it hurt, but at the same time it was like there were split seconds where my muscle felt like it just loosened, or let go, ugh I can’t explain it.  Sort of a stop and start feeling.  Whatever it was, I knew it couldn’t be good and the pain in my shoulder doubled, maybe even tripled, after that.

As someone who is always twisting ankles (I can’t find the posts about that, even though I’ve done it like 10 times, I know they are there!), breaking my ass, having a stomach that hates me, putting my back out, screwing up my pinkie toe, constantly getting colds and just generally being a big whiner, I sort of wanted to ignore it.  I have gotten so tired of things being wrong with me that I decided if I pretended it wasn’t there long enough, eventually it wouldn’t be.

Part of why I have been trying to lose weight is because of just that, I feel broken.  Physically, if it’s not one thing it’s another, ya know?  I have been like one of those 90 year old grannies who invites people over for tea so I can tell them about my hip surgery.  Enough already…

When I told my trainer about the pain, he pushed and dug around in my shoulder (which hurt like a bitch and even left a bruise! … but I forgive him) and then told me to get my ass to the doctor, so I did.  Then HE pushed and dug and made me move my arm in all sort of directions, which left another bruise and was lucky I hadn’t run out of forgiveness yet.

His verdict?  I’d pulled a ligament in my shoulder, I guess like I did with my toe.  Judging by where the pain is, I can only guess that it’s one of those blue ones, or maybe all of the blue ones, who knows.

Because of the problems with my stomach, he can’t give me pain killers (apparently they aggravate the whole acid situation), but he is sending me for physiotherapy, which I’ve never had before.   I have no idea how it all works, do I go in there so someone else can dig and push and test the limits of my forgiveness?  Does he massage me and make me feel better (I am hoping for this one), or does he make me do exercise?  I dunno…  What exactly do they do?

I will know in a few hours, as I have my first appointment at 2pm.  I can only assume that whatever it is he does, it will eventually make my shoulder feel better.  They wouldn’t have jobs if they weren’t doing something right.  I trust this guy though because I’ve already met him and he is REALLY nice.  I’ve been seeing him for some other things he does and I just got lucky that when I found out I needed physiotherapy that I remembered he does that too!

I do hope we are able to do something to fix it though, because the doctor told me I can’t do any exercises with my arms, which rules out returning to aqua fitness or doing any upper body workouts at the gym.   On the plus side, I’m doing tons of lower body workouts so I’ll probably have legs like rocks by the time this is all worked out!