PINCHY

I did some searching on my blog to find out when this problem with the pinched nerve in my shoulder started. The search function here on WordPress is SO much better than the one on LJ, it’s crazy. The first posts I could find were in September and then October of 2011.

That’s 11 years ago! Eleven years I’ve been dealing with this, on and off. The next posts were in 2014 and that’s when I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder and got a cortisone shot. However, that time the problem was my LEFT arm and shoulder and every single other time, it’s been my right arm and shoulder.

Then nothing until early in 2017. Same pinched nerve problems causing pain in my shoulder, back and arms, and pins and needles in my arm and hand, and pain in my fingertips. I had the MRI in mid-2017 and went to a series of naprapats and massage therapists to get it under control. It persisted, on and off again, into 2018.

And now, again, in 2022. UGH. That’s approximately every three years that I have a really bad flare-up that requires medical intervention, despite frequent and regular massages.

The exercises and posture corrections and ibuprofen course over the past 2 weeks haven’t done anything. The only time it doesn’t hurt at all is when I’m asleep, and for the extremely short time span between when I wake up and when I sit or stand up, and the weight of my head coming down on my neck is apparently enough to pinch the nerve again.

If I sit wrong, lean forward, reach down, or tip my head back, I get the shooting pains and pins and needles immediately. So far, thankfully, most of it goes away again immediately as soon as I change position except for my thumb and pointer finger tips which are tingly/painful all the time.

I’m seeing the physiotherapist again on Tuesday and THANK GOD Emily is back from her vacation and I have a massage scheduled with her on Wednesday, and then the doctor’s appointment at the Spine Center in Malmö on August 4. Hopefully, they’ll be able to schedule an MRI quickly before I go on vacation.

And then, also hopefully, they will say that it hasn’t degenerated more since 2017 and it can be treated with massage and medicine, and not an operation on my neck. EESH. Fingers crossed, even the tingling ones.

Mood: pained
Music: Lenka—Roll With the Punches