What A Tuesday!!

So last sunday I was chasing our little jug (half pug and half jack russel) and went to get something from him when he was under the stereo.  I got down on my stomach and reached my right arm out under neath like I have done so many many times before.  This was different.  I felt almost like a tearing sensation instantly.  I some how got up and sat back down on the couch.  Mom did the normal "Oh now what did you do" until she looked at me.  I had the hallmarks of bad pain - sweating, pale, dizzy, and clutching my shoulder.  We instantly put ice on it and mom asked if I dislocated it.  It didn't feel like that type of pain though.  I took pain killers and iced it the next day but by tuesday it was getting worse.  I have actually lost ROM (range of motion) which I have never ever done - even after surgery or bad dislocations.  My collar bone is sticking out quite a bit further than the other side and I can stick my thumb in behind it.  Mom then decided that we needed to go and get it checked out.  As we had another appointment that day we stopped off at my GP's office to ask if they could order xrays or if they thought I should go to the ER.  The nurse said they would write up a request for it and as I already have pain meds it was decided that the ER wasn't necessary.

That would have to wait though as I had to go and get my yearly echo done on my heart.  The test went by with no issues which is great but the doctor doing the echo was interesting.  He made small talk for a bit and found out the town that I used to go to school in and wondered how often I go up there.  Then he seemed really interested in my EDS and specifically the type of pain that I had, what areas, what treatments I have tried and on and on.  Near the end he goes to write something down and then hands me a post-it note with his name and phone number on it and asks that the next time I am in the other town that I give him a call because he would be very interested in seeing if we could get my pain under control!  I was absolutely stunned as was my mom.  Very greatfull as well that he has taken this interest and actually wants to work WITH me and tackle the chronic pain in my body!  When we got home later I, of course, googled him and found out that he is at a clinic called natural drugs & accupuncture therapy.

After the appointment for the echo it was off to the hospital to get xrays done on my shoulder.  Thankfully it was not that much of a wait and I was back getting them done in no time.  I go in and they ask whay are you here (injured shoulder) and underlying conditions (EDS) and when it happened (sunday).  The one lady then goes to line me up but couldn't get one shot so the other lady had to come out to do it.  However, this lady was NOT gentle with my shoulder and dug her fingers in all around the front of my shoulder because my collar bone was not 'right'.  This lead me to remember that a few years ago when I got my first cortisone shot in that shoulder my rheumy remarked that I had really strange collar bones and that they were hard to 'pin down'.  They also did a shot that just about had me in tears which really really sucked!  Thankfully I had a few pain pills in my purse that I was able to take right after before the pain set in really badly!

Mom was getting concerned with my shoulder so we tried to make a sling for it that didn't work that well so my mom decided to call my brother as he had shoulder surgery about two months ago (long long story!).  He brought the sling over and said I could have it as he didn't need it anymore.  He asked me if I dislocated it and I kinda laughed and said no, I do that every couple of days.  He had a look of pure shock on his face and I think it kinda is starting to really realize just how bad the EDS can be.  I have used the sling a few times just to make it so I can't use my right arm.  It is very hard not to as my bad wrist is my left one so I can do most things strictly right handed but not visa versa.  The sling also takes a bit of the pressure off of the shoulder but I still can't just 'rest' my shoulder.  I can not 'release' the muscles to rest it.  I can't do that with any of my joints anymore as I have to always have control or they will go out.  Strange thing is that my shoulder hurts the most when I am lying down (which I have read is indicative of a slap tear but I dont know). 

The nurse at my GP's office told us to call on tuesday to see if the xrays showed anything (most likely not, they generally dont show up on xrays) and to go from there.  Unfortantly my GP is out of the office for two weeks so not sure what the next step will be. Just hoping I dont have to go to the ER to get a referal to an OS quicker as I despise two out of the five or six OS's in this town.  One of which just told me a month ago that the only thing wrong was tendonitis!