A Feeling of Pain

For about the past eight weeks I've been experiencing some pain in my right shoulder. It hurts in the back near the rotator cuff. For a while it only hurt when someone was moving my arm but these past couple weeks it's been hurting constantly. Even with all my therapy, range of motion and pain medications; nothing seems to help it.

Last Wednesday I went to an orthopedic specialist to see if I could figure out what was wrong. It was funny because she kept on moving it all these different directions asking if it hurt each time. I was like yeah it hurts every time you move it. Even though I have limited feeling in my body, I can still feel pain. My body can also tell when something is hurting because when it does I spasm.

She made a pre-diagnosis of frozen shoulder (technical name is adhesive capsulitis). I had no idea what that meant, but apparently it's when the shoulder is painful and loses motion because of inflammation. I'm in the pain stage now; my shoulder hasn't lost too much motion yet, only the fact that whichever way it's moved hurts so I try not to. She said that in order to tell for sure I would need an MRI done.

Today I got the MRI of my shoulder. I never had one before this. I heard stories about how loud and claustrophobic it is, but I wasn't nervous going in. It was just a bigger ordeal because I'm a quad on a vent with a C1 to C3 spinal fusion and a baclofen pump. We had to make sure that everything was cleared before being sucked into a big magnet.

My fusion was okay because it's been 8 1/2 years since I've had it. I was worried though about the baclofen pump at first. Then I read that they are okay in an MRI but they may temporarily stop working while in it. I had to get a doctor's order for someone at the hospital to read it before and afterwards to make sure it was working properly. Then as far as my vent goes, they just switched me to one of theirs which was MRI safe.

Before going in they put a headset on me with music of my choice. I am claustrophobic in certain situations, but while inside I just shut my eyes and tried to relax. There was a lot of beeping and clanking going on during. Every so often I would hear a voice in my ear asking me if I was doing okay (wasn't too happy about the interruption of my songs…lol). Overall it went well and I came out with a smile on my face so the people there were happy about that.

I'm going in to the orthopedist office on Monday where I'll get the results. If it is frozen shoulder they will do a cortisone shot to bring down the inflammation and help with the pain. Then I'll be able to have physical therapy work on getting proper movement in it. I might have to go back six weeks after to get another shot if the pain starts up again. Other than that it just needs lots of time for it to heal.

I'll keep you updated as I know more.

Jenni