Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
I'm just plain sick of this crap. All of it.
I've had my 14th dose of Orencia this week. Good stuff. No side effects, and it really seems to be kicking in. It's summer, and it's been nice. Not too hot, chilly at night, my favorite. So what's the problem?
About six weeks ago, I reached for something and messed up my shoulder. Horrible noise, horrible pain. The past six weeks have been spent waiting for an orthopedics appointment, waiting for insurance to approve MRI, waiting for the imaging, waiting to get back into the orthopedics office. I know, welcome to 21st century medicine.
When you finally have an appointment, the object seems to be to get you out of there ASAP. Under three minutes? Bonus for the doctor. I really like the ortho-guy, but the practice has been sold to the local hospital chain, which is doing a Hungry Hungry Hippos thing around town. One of these outfits that puts a whole new spin on the concept of "not for profit."
Nothin' in the MRI is good news. Lots of our favorite words: tendinitis, synovitis, tenosynovitis, bursitis, inflammation, effusion, termites, and arthritis. Oh, a tear in a tendon, too.
Great, doc. Glad to hear it. Here I was fearing that nothing would show up. What now? Drugs, my dear. Make sure your rheumy has you on as many drugs as you can swallow, then add some more. Up the prednisone. How about a cortisone shot? No? Are you sure? OK. Go see a physical therapist for six weeks. But, I have decent range of motion and strength. What will PT do? We don't know, but sometimes it helps. Nope, the tear won't heal, but go to PT.
Off to physical therapy. The place has that gym-rat, super-jock air about it, and has "sports" somewhere in the name. Crap- I'm not a sports person, don't want to become one. Not comfortable. Therapist is a nice guy, actually. Until he tells me that an old injury doesn't cause muscle spasm in the spot where I say it does. Oh? I've only had this problem for twenty six years, probably about the time you were learning cursive writing, punk. But of course, you know where it hurts from school, right? My education is in the arts, not PT, so I'll just shut up now. I know nothing. Strength testing, then they show me a set of fun exercises I can do at home. The tech uses lots of gym rat slang. I have to ask her a couple of times what she's talking about.
The PT asks if I see a chiropractor. No sir. Haven't been to the witch doctor, the tarot card reader, or the crystal healer yet either. Passed on the Reiki and the homeopath, too. Oh. My. God. What have I gotten into now? (Some of you may swear by chiropractors. I tend to think they have a horrifying propensity for practicing way outside the scope of their licensure. And for selling overpriced supplements. And for scheduling appointments a dozen at a time, payable up front.)
4 am. Some sore muscles, to be expected. Shoulder hurting like a S.O.B. Muscle spasms throughout my back and neck. The headache from hell, courtesy of all the muscle spasms. The muscle spasm that I'm not allowed to have is especially knotted up.
Rheumy appointment today. Double the prednisone for a bit. Oh, good. There goes sleep for awhile.
It's going to be just sunshine and rainbows around here for awhile.
I've had my 14th dose of Orencia this week. Good stuff. No side effects, and it really seems to be kicking in. It's summer, and it's been nice. Not too hot, chilly at night, my favorite. So what's the problem?
About six weeks ago, I reached for something and messed up my shoulder. Horrible noise, horrible pain. The past six weeks have been spent waiting for an orthopedics appointment, waiting for insurance to approve MRI, waiting for the imaging, waiting to get back into the orthopedics office. I know, welcome to 21st century medicine.
When you finally have an appointment, the object seems to be to get you out of there ASAP. Under three minutes? Bonus for the doctor. I really like the ortho-guy, but the practice has been sold to the local hospital chain, which is doing a Hungry Hungry Hippos thing around town. One of these outfits that puts a whole new spin on the concept of "not for profit."
Nothin' in the MRI is good news. Lots of our favorite words: tendinitis, synovitis, tenosynovitis, bursitis, inflammation, effusion, termites, and arthritis. Oh, a tear in a tendon, too.
Great, doc. Glad to hear it. Here I was fearing that nothing would show up. What now? Drugs, my dear. Make sure your rheumy has you on as many drugs as you can swallow, then add some more. Up the prednisone. How about a cortisone shot? No? Are you sure? OK. Go see a physical therapist for six weeks. But, I have decent range of motion and strength. What will PT do? We don't know, but sometimes it helps. Nope, the tear won't heal, but go to PT.
Off to physical therapy. The place has that gym-rat, super-jock air about it, and has "sports" somewhere in the name. Crap- I'm not a sports person, don't want to become one. Not comfortable. Therapist is a nice guy, actually. Until he tells me that an old injury doesn't cause muscle spasm in the spot where I say it does. Oh? I've only had this problem for twenty six years, probably about the time you were learning cursive writing, punk. But of course, you know where it hurts from school, right? My education is in the arts, not PT, so I'll just shut up now. I know nothing. Strength testing, then they show me a set of fun exercises I can do at home. The tech uses lots of gym rat slang. I have to ask her a couple of times what she's talking about.
The PT asks if I see a chiropractor. No sir. Haven't been to the witch doctor, the tarot card reader, or the crystal healer yet either. Passed on the Reiki and the homeopath, too. Oh. My. God. What have I gotten into now? (Some of you may swear by chiropractors. I tend to think they have a horrifying propensity for practicing way outside the scope of their licensure. And for selling overpriced supplements. And for scheduling appointments a dozen at a time, payable up front.)
4 am. Some sore muscles, to be expected. Shoulder hurting like a S.O.B. Muscle spasms throughout my back and neck. The headache from hell, courtesy of all the muscle spasms. The muscle spasm that I'm not allowed to have is especially knotted up.
Rheumy appointment today. Double the prednisone for a bit. Oh, good. There goes sleep for awhile.
It's going to be just sunshine and rainbows around here for awhile.
My shoulder isn't frozen- I actually have good range of motion. The big problem is the little gremilin who seems to be sitting atop it, stabbing me with an ice pick every time I move it. Whether this is due to the bursitis, tendinitis, synovitis, tenosynovitis, the rotator cuff tear, or pick any three, I don't know.
Sally, the website you link to has good info for a variety of shoulder ills, and some of the more easily read diagrams I've seen. Thanks for passing that on.
Depot, I have a fairly physical job. Part of it involves carrying large pieces of glass around. I'm really not up for dropping one on my foot to the tune of some severed arteries! Between that, vacuuming, pulling dinner out of the oven, folding laundry, yes, it's its own form of PT. As to the bra thing, two words: front closing. They were a lifesaver the year I was having hand surgeries.
I have a sneaking suspiscion that the main function of PT is to keep the patient busy while waiting for nature to take its course.
did this start at work and you are using workers comp? or is it totally initiated by RA and you are on sick time? No we do not ant you to eviscerate your foot. that would not be good.
doctor's like to feel efficacious. they write PT scripts. I have always been given the option to turn it down. in fact I stopped PT after neck surgery. the PT was interfering with the heal. I did better on my own.
On the other hand PT has been a miracle worker now and then with short term strategic hits. no one size fits all.
Depot
I'm putting in my time at work, trying to avoid doing anything dumb. Problem is, I can't get any direction from the PT as to what's OK and what's not. I didn't even get an answer yesterday as to whether or not to continue with my "homework" and if I should stop if the stabbing pain starts up, or just cowboy up and do it anyway. No answer to the email asking this.
As a veteran of six prior orthopedic surgeries, it's not my first tango with PT either. Often as not, I've found it aggravates the original problem.
I'm leaving town for a few days tomorrow, so no more PT appointments until next week. Yay!
You need someone who is knowledgeable in musician injuries. Your punk therapist needs to be looking those up because they will be different than normal. Normal people don't hold their arms that way.
I'd call for follow up immediately and push for the next level. I've had to be so pushy lately with the army. No one in my family has seen the same doctor twice in 6 months. Depending on how Friday goes with my daughter, I may be writing a letter to every congressman I've ever been attached to.
And keep venting here so you can calmly dissect them in person,
I've tried to find someone who knows something about musicians' injuries. Doesn't seem to be anyone around. One friend swears by the music & medicine clinic at Northwestern, but Chicago is about 1400 miles from here. (You go that far for groceries and a dentist, don't you?)
You might want to contact them for resources that you can pass along to your team of people to look up. They hate hearing it from us, but maybe they'll bother to learn something if it comes from a better source.
I was teaching strings when my left elbow wouldn't straighten completely and I had to educate the physical therapy department at BAMC in San Antonio. "not playing" is just not an option... They rubbed on that arm three times a week for three months. Felt nice. Didn't do a darn thing. (Found a massage therapist that was able to fix that in one session.)
A good one could probably figure out what's going on and help. Since they're literally hands on they can feel where the damage is and work from there. It would help your spasms and get rid of all that tension built up from the pain and lack of sleep.
It might be worth a try. I hate that this pain has taken your music from you, even temporarily.