Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

today I talked to Mom in the morning, and since then, have overstrained my shoulder. Maybe too much mousing while looking at grocery website, and I am fairly sure that the one upper body exercise I decided would be a good idea wasn't. I have applied heat a couple of times. right now it's an ice pack, mostly as a short-term painkiller while the pills I just took have time to sleep/

My left shoulder hurt when I woke up yesterday. My best guess is that I somehow slept on it wrong; naproxen helped some.

I was hoping it would be better this morning, but while it may be a little better, it's not back to normal, or even the normal that means I will need to do PT-derived stretches and exercises for, probably, the rest of my life. (I have been prioritizing the knee and hip exercises and stretches, because those joints will start hurting more quickly.)

So, naproxen again once I remembered -- I try not to take NSAIDs on an empty stomach, even if I had thought of it before breakfast -- and trying to hold my arm in ways that don't hurt.

Meanwhile, I have planters (purchased on Amazon), and a cucumber trellis and fertilizer on order: and I think all three of the cucumber plants I'd put outside are dying. I was blaming the leftover soil in two planters, but the one in a new flowerpot potting soil that someone bought at the garden center last month isn't doing much better. The three plants that are still in little pots on the porch, on the other hand, seem to be healthy, even flourishing. The question is whether to carry potting soil downstairs and transplant them now, or wait until the trellis and/or plant food get here. This is likely to be decided based on my shoulder and the weather.

Part of why I am feeling glum about the whole thing is that growing vegetables was supposed to be some combination of a hobby/distraction during the pandemic and lockdown, and a way to get actual good vegetables when we can't do our own shopping. So now I need a distraction from my diversion.

A conversation with rysmiel has me thinking about which of the PT shoulder exercises I want to include in my workout long-term. It's an issue because while I like exercising, I have a finite amount of time and energy to devote to it, and I've been letting some of my other exercises slide while doing the shoulder rehab.

( cut for people who don't want exercise details )

I skipped last week because I didn't want to deal with the health insurance annoyance just then, and don't seem to have suffered significantly by doing so.

The key points here are: keep icing, even though the shoulder is feeling quite a bit better; and if an exercise starts to feel like I could do sets of 12 instead of 10, increase the weight/resistance instead. (There are some practical issues here, to do with things like availability of free weights, but I can work around that.) Also, one thing they set up, I looked at and said "I could do that in my sleep" and asked for more resistance—the "I could do it in my sleep" reaction was a combination of familiar-looking activity and the amount of resistance. (I guessed right on that one, in that I did three sets of 10, and they were moderately difficult but not painful.)

I will need to poke at a calendar and see what the best way of scheduling sessions around my June travel is; ideally I won't either go to PT while half asleep, or go three weeks between sessions. (Two and a half weeks may be unavoidable, though.)

As of yesterday, the PT is mostly about strengthening (we're still doing ultrasound). Connected to that, I have the therapist's okay to start doing my regular exercises with both arms, with a bit of care, and some new exercises to do.

So, this morning's workout was a mix of my usual stuff and some PT things that I may or may not be doing long-term. ( click if you want to see details )

The PT for my shoulder* is going well, for values of "well" that mean I'm now doing more of the work. When it was mostly stretching, traction (i.e. the therapist stretching my arm and shoulder for me), and ultrasound, it felt easy. Now, there are more strengthening exercises, meaning I'm doing more work. I have no new homework after today's session, though. (Generally, we try something new at most PT sessions. If a new thing goes well, I say so at the next session, and it may be added to my set of things to do at home.)

I also have a new paid freelance project, math editing again. I first heard from the client a couple of weeks ago, and then nothing for just long enough that I'd started wondering whether anything would come of it. I now have my first assigned chunk of work (they're calling them chapters while saying that isn't quite accurate because this is an online first/only project). There's a training session tomorrow morning, which is being recorded; I will listen to it later, rather than getting up in time to be awake and focused at 7 a.m. PDT. The documents they sent along include a style guide, which will be useful: this is for the Australian market, so it includes the desired punctuation of "anticlockwise" and not to use "counterclockwise."

Also, I am roasting a duck for my and cattitude's dinner.

*I somehow aggravated the old rotator cuff injury, and after going to my GP to confirm that diagnosis, have been seeing a physical therapist for a bit over a month.

When I saw my doctor yesterday, she confirmed my guess that the shoulder pain was from my rotator cuff, and gave me a referral to a physical therapist. (I don't need a referral for insurance/bureaucractic purposes, but she said that this person is particularly good for shoulders.) They had an appointment available this morning, so I have now seen Ian Johnson (the recommended PT) and his assistant/intern Sheree.

He started with some diagnostic stuff: "how far can you raise your arm?" and "does this hurt?" sort of stuff, then said he agreed with Dr. Mannem that there was nothing torn, and he could help me.

We did some stretching—including correcting my form on the stretches I've had all along. I'm to do two of those (skip the over-the-head one for now) and a couple of new stretches every day (one of the new ones is for the neck). I should not do the strengthening one with the piece of elastic for now, to avoid straining the injured muscles.

They also did ultrasound, traction (gently pulling on my arm), and ice massage. Ian and Sheree want me to ice three times a day, and at least one of those should be getting someone to do the ice massage thing.

I have another appointment for Thursday; we are probably looking at 4-6 weeks of PT, two or three times a week (with an unavoidable gap while I'm in Boston, but I will do my stretches and ice).

We also discussed my exercise program. No arm or upper body stuff for now unless I can do it with just the left hand, and he advises me against ever going back to the chest press or the pushups, both because of the rotator cuff problem and because I'm over 40, and that in itself apparently puts me at a higher risk for rotator cuff problems. Leg exercises, crunches, and the hamstring bridges are fine, as are my balance exercises standing on the foam roller, and the ones where I lie on it but keep one foot on the ground.

He is in favor of NSAIDS; Dr. Mannem yesterday wanted me to be be cautious with those, so as not to mask the pain.

He also wants me to take a good look at the ergonomics of my desk, and not to spend too much time there/at the computer. I will try.

By the time I got downtown this morning, it was raining hard; I waited under cover for a few minutes, but not long enough, and the backs of my pants got wet as I walked to the bank (to cash a check) and then on for a cup of tea before my workout. By then my right shoulder was bothering me enough that I took some ibuprofen, and did a workout that was all lower body and core.

( the specifics )

I put my damp pants back on, and went out into the rain. By the time I got indoors again (for some soup) the fronts of the pants were also wet. Nonetheless, hot soup helps many things. From there, I went to the Mid-Manhattan Library and picked up a book, and came home. By then my back was hurting (between the shoulder blades), possibly from the amount I was carrying. I am now trying a muscle relaxant/aspirin combo pill, but the back pain is distracting me from anything more complicated than writing this, and was bad enough earlier that I stopped partway through a set of my shoulder stretches. I really hope I'm feeling well enough for at least some of the usual upper-body exercise by Wednesday.

I have an appointment with the screen people to bring our repaired screens back tomorrow, hopefully in the morning. This fits nicely with my existing plan to stay home and take it easy physically.

I had a good session last night. I walked in not sure how it would work, because some of the muscles in my thighs (sort of at the fold between leg and torso) were sore enough that taking full-length steps was uncomfortable. I told Emilie about that, and my guess about cause (jumping onto the hip adduction machine after weeks without), and she had me use the foam roller, and then do some stretches, and it helped a lot.

Then, we did a bunch of the usual stuff, including balance work, and she was talking about my hyoid bone. I think the idea is that if I focus there, I can shift the position of my head and neck in beneficial ways. This seems a little odd, but some other odd-seeming things she's had me do have worked.

Emilie was also talking in terms of getting the shoulder to stop hurting, which would be a pleasant surprise: I am not counting on it. (This is my right shoulder, which has old rotator cuff damage/issues, that hurt unpredictably but annoyingly often.(

( more details )

And a bit of the same rolling out of IT band and stretching, and a few other bits, this evening.

I did half an hour of cardio, then met with Emilie. I started by telling her "No more lat pulldowns, ever" and explained why (my right shoulder still hurts, a week later). After I'd also talked about the knees, and some smaller annoyances, she suggested that some massage might help; we wound up spending most of my session on that (knees, shoulders, and related things like calf muscles, neck, and jaw). At her suggestion, I have also iced the shoulder.

I won't be seeing her next week, because of Thanksgiving (which is the main reason I didn't call yesterday and cancel this session).

( cut for details )