It’s been nine weeks since I broke my arm. I had my cast removed two weeks ago, but I am still struggling with severe stiffness in my shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. It’s so bad that I can barely use my hand or arm and cannot bend my elbow past maybe 50 degrees. It really sucks to be 45 years old and still need your mom to tie your hair back—I tried so hard to do it myself, but I just have way too much hair to use the one-hand method.
The rehabilitation of my arm has been hindered by an ongoing shoulder problem. Way back in December, I saw a doctor for severe pain and limited range-of-motion in my shoulder. It wasn’t an injury—I just woke up that way. I attempted to stretch it out, figuring that I slept on it wrong. Stretching had always helped in the past, so I figured it was worth a try. That was a bad decision. You know those people who always claim exercise is the answer to everything? Yeah, they are wrong. That was when I decided to see a doctor.
I tried to explain the situation to the nurse: I woke up in pain, did some yoga to try to relieve it, then ended up worse than before. The doctor then came in and started speaking as if this were a yoga injury, asking if I was doing a new pose or something. I again explained that I woke up in pain and was trying to stretch it out. They always assume that if you are overweight, a simple exercise or yoga stretch will overexert your muscles. I’ve actually been doing a little bit of yoga since the days of Wii Fit to help relieve my back pain. I never injured myself doing it and found it did help to reduce my pain, improve my overall posture, and increase my flexibility.
This doctor took a quick look at my shoulder and stated that it was an “angry muscle,” then said he would prescribe a topical cream, promised a paper with shoulder exercises, and left to continue flirting with the nurse—the nurse who couldn’t bother to listen to what I actually said. The cream was $95 a tube because my insurance wouldn’t cover it, so I obviously could not afford that, and I never received a printout of exercises, or even the option for a printout of my summary, like they always offer. Maybe they were on the summary on the Wellspan portal, but that wasn’t available until much later.
I did discover that the same cream was on the shelf right there in CVS near the pharmacy for $15, but I was hesitant because it is a strong medication, and I am sensitive to all medications. I had some good ol’ Bengay at home, and that has always worked wonders for me. However, it didn’t do much to relieve my shoulder pain, so I found some exercises on YouTube and attempted them when my shoulder could handle them. My pain never really went away, so I just figured I had to live with it. The best relief I was able to get was from a shoulder brace that had a pocket for an ice pack.
After I broke my arm, my shoulder pain began to increase tremendously due to the lack of movement, the extra weight of the cast, and the inability to do those shoulder exercises. I mentioned it to the orthopedic doctor, who thought this was just because of the cast. Two weeks after the cast was off, I was in so much pain that I struggled to sleep more than three hours at a time. I scheduled to see the orthopedic doctor the next day—a rare opening for any doctor in our area.
The doctor ordered x-rays of my shoulder, and then added ones for my arm to check on that since I was there anyway. There was nothing wrong with the bones in my shoulder, and the bone in my arm was on track with the healing process. We discussed the stiffness in my arm overall: the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. My wrist is still extremely stiff, making it hard to type, though it is possible, unlike when I was wearing the cast. He was confident my hand, wrist, and elbow will recover with more time, but not so much my shoulder.
I told him about my experience in December and that I’ve basically been in pain since. He tried to move my arm and commented that my shoulder was “locked,” severely limiting my range-of-motion. He explained that I have something called “frozen shoulder,” which is genetic and more likely in women who are age 40 to 60 and have diabetes or thyroid problems. There I was, a 45-year-old woman with higher-than-normal thyroid numbers and two blood-related aunts who had this same problem before. It wasn’t an “angry muscle,” it was a swelling of the lining in the shoulder joint.
Though the shoulder should heal on its own over time, he felt I would benefit from physical therapy and a steroid injection. My mom, who was with me in the exam room, immediately asked about side effects from the shot. When I was briefly on Prednisone in 2017 to fight what was believed to be Lyme disease, I quickly descended into extreme “roid rage” and suffered nearly every side effect of the medication: irritability, hunger, insomnia, itchiness, and so on. Thankfully, the injection does not have the same effect, though I have been extremely hungry over the past couple days…
The unfortunate thing about my shoulder is that I feel it is hindering the recovery of my stiff joints. Granted, I have been easy on my arm because the bone is not 100 percent healed and I certainly do not want to go back into a cast, but my inability to move my arm much without severe pain means I use that arm much less than I should. Hopefully, physical therapy will help—whenever I can finally start—and my shoulder will return to normal. I didn’t have any improvement when I had physical therapy for my knee, so I hope this time it will be different.
Sadly, that doctor does not know as much about knees as he does about shoulders. He did say there was another doctor at the office who could maybe help. Perhaps I will try again to get answers to my knee questions after my arm is functioning normally again.
I’m glad to be out of that itchy cast, but I am really tired of always being in pain.