I've been moaning for a while that my shoulder was hurting when I was attempting to quilt anything bigger than a wall hanging, but it seemed to wear of pretty fast when I stopped and I only got the occasional ache at other times. It was enough to worry me before my hip surgery (November) that I wasn't going to cope with crutches, but I seemed to do ok, then about a month after I stopped using them I started to get quite a lot of discomfort in my ribs just below my shoulder blade and it would spread to the neck and shoulder itself.
Chiropractic treatment sorted the ribs out and I expected the other stuff to ease off too, but it didn't, so the chiropractor recommended a physical therapist to me and I went to her for the first time about
3 weeks ago, it's taken a bit of time to fully assess things, simply because it's so complex, but finally on Friday she did some tests that indicated something called a labral tear in my shoulder (it's a ring of cartilidgy type tissue on the shoulder blade that helps hold the main arm bone in place).
I'm a bit freaked out because it was the equivalent in the hip that was one of the things sorted out in that surgery, I'm freaked out a bit more because I've not injured my shoulder to my knowledge, so it's a little worrying that my tissue is so fragile I can do bad stuff to it and not realise. What is most distressing is just how painful this is, I've done quite a few different pains in my time and bad ones, even the worst my hip was (which was BAD), I could find a position where I could lie still, apply heat or ice and take strong stuff and most of the time, even if it didn't go away and it would come back again if I dared to go to the toilet or anything, I could manage moderate comfort and be able to read a book, or do something. With this shoulder that seems impossible, I can lie flat on my back with pillows under my knees, to avoid it making anything else hurt, but even lieing like that I can't overcome the pain, because even breathing hurts and should I want to attempt not to get bored out of my mind that's been banned by the powers that be and should I want to do something crazy like sleep, if pain allows it, I've never been able to fall asleep flat on my back and as luck would have it, this is the right shoulder, when it was my left hip that had surgery and even though that is mostly pain free, it won't permit me to lie on it for more than about 30 seconds.
I'm stunned how fast this has developed from an achy shoulder to pretty much everything being exceedingly painful, I was just starting to pull ideas together for a lone star quilt and even made a paste up of one section and have it stuck on the wall with all the cutting instructions I worked out. I cut a couple of strips on Thursday night and realised it was a bad idea, put a new blade in, so it was as good as possible, was only doing two layers, but after a couple more it was a no go - I can see managing to sew, I usually direct the fabric with my left hand anyway, but if I can't cut, then that's going to be a bit pointless. I managed to get an appointment with a specialist on Wednesday, but I don't know how much of an opinion/prognosis etc they'll be able to give until I get some imaging done.
I was just starting to get into the quilting groove again after a blip for other reasons. I bought a new quilt book today and I really want to have a good look at it, but I can only manage to look at if for a couple of minutes at a time! I'm booked to go on retreat the first weekend in June, which right now looks a bit crazy!
Cheers Anne