Shoulder Twins

 October 1 marks 6 months from my shoulder dislocation and break.   I am still doing physical therapy to gain strength and motion.  It's a slow process that at times is frustrating.

The pain I was feeling on a daily basis has mostly gone away.  It no longer radiates down my arm all day and all night.  However, it is still an issue when I sleep.  I am really only comfortable on my back, probably because it allows the muscles in my shoulders to relax, but I am a side sleeper and when in that state I will roll over and it wakes me up when my hand goes numb.   I'm pinching something in that side position.

I had a meeting with the orthopedic doc last week and I nervously told him about the numbness.  The last thing I want to have is some sort of nerve damage that would need a surgical repair, thus undoing all the work to gain my strength back.    He pulled up my file and read something to me  (paraphrasing):

Patient complains of continuing pain radiating down arm, and numbness in hand when sleeping on her side.

That was the note from the 5 month check-in after the first break on the left side.  OMG!  I totally forgot about that from the last time.  He gave me a wrap to help keep my elbow from folding all the way when I sleep, which should prevent me from pinching the nerve. He said that we'll check back in in two months and if it's still going numb, then he'll do a nerve study, but is confident that it will heal by then.  

He did say that while the breaks were basically identical, that because the right shoulder also experienced a dislocation that the time to heal would be longer because of the additional tissue trauma.  I am continuing to be a good PT patient and working on my stretching at home.

I slept with the bandage on my arm, and it's annoying but does keep me from tucking the arm, which also keeps me on my back.  

One Month In...

In person school has been good on many fronts, Lucy is happy to go each day and we like her teacher.  Lucy is building good habits by completing her daily homework before doing the fun stuff.  

She did push back a little bit last night when solving a word problem in math.  "Why can't Shelly help herself?  Why is she asking me to figure out the age of her sister?"   She's a funny kid.  Thankfully, the delay tactic didn't take too long and soon she solved Shelly's dilemma. 

There have been two kids in her class that tested positive for Covid-19 and my anxiety is now lower than before on that front.   Both students were exposed outside of school, and the school does an assessment of who the student has been in close contact with and then sends them home for two weeks to incubate.   (There is no online option, so they are on their own for keeping up with the class.)    No one is told who tested positive, but a few simple inquiries to the kid and it becomes obvious.  The yellow kids are the ones who were out with the first infection, and the green with the second. 

Kids from the first round have returned to school, and only the center X seems to be experiencing any noticeable issues.  (Keep in mind our information comes from a 10 year old, but she's pretty reliable.)  

Lucy is excited to have her classmates back as the 'yellow' kids were also at her lunch table and she had to eat alone for two weeks.  I wouldn't have thought the distancing that the school mapped out would be effective, but thus far, I'm impressed.

We are anxiously awaiting FDA approval for the kiddo's vaccine.  I feel like we're playing darts.