Monday, January 20, 2025

MRI follow-up: Unpleasant waiting game

Cortisone shot helped a bit for 2 weeks, then went back to hurting almost as much as it was before. Had a crappy MRI experience. Suffice it to say I found out how severely claustrophobic I am, and how rude MRI techs are. They covered my one arm and told me the other might get burned by the MRI machine. I wasn’t in a good head-space to posses the logic to ask why they couldn’t simply cover my other arm. Luckily I didn’t get burned, but that didn’t help stress levels, when you’re told not to move, but to try to curl up like a pill bug to not touch the sides. It’s not like one can just down some alcohol beforehand and melt into it and take a nap.

Anyway, I get to wait more than a month for an appointment to tell me if there’s even sufficient information collected. I aske for the report, but since I’m not a clinician, I can’t decipher it very well. It noted there was too much movement. Gee, shaking and hyperventilating does that. Or hey, what I can do to prevent further damage in the meantime. I could glean enough to figure out there are multiple tears. I’ve stopped doing the exercises previously given, but I’m wary of even a normal morning stretch now.

It sounds like the problem is that unless I cite a specific injury and date, they think nothing can possibly be wrong. I tore the knee, and now my shoulder gradually. They act as if that’s not possible. Ok, fine, I guess I tore something last April? Judging by the increased amount of pain, it still seems like something’s progressed a lot since then.

Reading the report, a few terms stood out that don’t sound promising. Rotator cuff: high-grade tear…involving approximately 75% of the breadth of the tendon at the critical zone… yeah, that’s about all I got. Mild tendinopathy and bursitis. Why not. More fun to add to the mix.

Searches on the web repeatedly call it rotator cuff “disease” so there’s that fun word again. What else can I do besides waiting for my muscles to atrophy while I avoid doing anything, and being paranoid about every tiny twinge. It's going to be a long few weeks.

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