Hello all, new member here. I have read a bit but not joined until now. Talk about
shooting myself in the foot!
I am a 42 year old single momma schoolteacher. Here is the background..,
December 2013, I fell on the basketball court with my students. Broken toe, sore shoulder, infected scrape on toe with possible MRSA, and likely whiplash was the diagnosis five days later.
To me, it wasn't that bad of a fall. I was sore but more embarrassed than anything. They put me in a boot and cloth sling at urgent care and I returned to work an hour later.
January 2014, I saw the ortho who ordered X-rays and an artho with contrast. I was started on PT as well. The last week of January I went for the MRI. I was in pain but nothing major. I wanted to give PT all the time they needed to fix me as I was anti-surgery.
I just continued with PT as the doctors office never called me with any results. The neck pain was really becoming a nuisance so I was sent to spinal ortho. They did X-rays and said they only saw arthritis. They said they would worry about
my neck after my shoulder was addressed. So, they added a few neck exercises to my PT and I continued on.
April, my PT finally requested my results from the January MRI. She kept asking me if I has gone to see dr and I told her not yet, I was going to let PT have their shot at fixing me. She then told me she was going to refuse to see me if I did not get my results from dr.
I finally went in and ....whoa. I heard things like large SLAP tear, bank hart lesions, bone spurs, hills sach, etc. well, I knew I was fighting a losing battle then and scheduled surgery after four months of PT and two cortisone injections, which never took away the pain but helped me add some pounds that I did not need.
May 2014 I has surgery with rotator cuff repair...owwww! I took four weeks off to recover and returned to my students with only three days left before summer break. I hated losing that time with them. I teach fourth grade inclusion ELA.
Recovery was painful, they tried Demerol and Nucynta...serious hallucinations! I rarely took meds throughout my life. They put me on Hydrocodone and finally stopped seeing my children chewing gerbils and other crazy things.
I has the summer to recuperate and continue PT. I always felt like my arm was about
to dislocate again like it did with the initial fall and one other time. The dr refused to do another MRI when I asked.
September, ortho put me at MMI and I was done. I was going to wait a month or two before requesting a different doctor. Workers comp only allows you one request to change.
October 2014 I tripped in the hallway, almost landed on a bunch of first graders, yikes. I was sent to a new ortho who requested MRI of shoulders and neck after I told him the neck was not addressed before and my shoulder still hurt.
January 2015 surgery was scheduled based on MRI results of my shoulder. MRI of spine showed disc herniations and other stuff but we chose to address shoulder first. Biceps tendonesis was performed in February on the 10th. No rotator cuff tear though.
Two weekends later my shoulder and arm continued to go numb post surgery and they sent me to the ER to rule out stroke. They kept me all weekend. Nurses kept asking if anyone read me my new MRI result and saying it was not looking good.
They told me the same MRI results but gave me a few more details. I was sent home finally Sunday evening. Saw my ortho for spine the next day and surgery was requested. I never returned to work. Pain was definitely better after the tendonesis than the rotator cuff repair.
March 17 I received a c4-c5 and c5-c6 ACDF. Before this, my doctor offered more steroid shots, like I had with shoulder, which I declined and the surgeon said this was the only choice.
This was the worst pain ever! I stayed in the hospital overnight. Some guy came I and took my collar and said they had wrong size on me, he took it up two siZes. I became incredibly sick from oxycodone and was a mess the next morning after bouts of losing the water and jello they gave me.
They changed me to Tramadol and Hydrocodone with Phenergen and I was so much better. I am home now with hopes to return at the four week mark post surgery and my dr thinks it will likely happen.
I keep forgetting to take meds on schedule and sadly, by the time the pain really starts in, it is too late and I struggle. My three children are tween/early teens and my 21 year old comes to check on me a bit. I have no choice but to prepare a few meals or stand over their shoulder to watch them.
Laundry is struggling, house is a mess. I sleep in a stuffed chair. I can't wear collar as it makes under my chin go numb and digs into shoulder blades which is causing bruising. The nurse said I was ok to not wear it while home and they would look at the size next Friday when I return for my two week.
Someone came by today and has me put on a bone stimulator unit that I will wear the next few months 24/7. Total surprise, doctor never mentioned it all all!
I sleep 2-3 hours at night, I am starting to become depressed as I am not getting a ton of help from family and friends, and have to beg on FB to see who is available for small errands.
I try to look like Superwoman, Supermom, and Superteacher and I am getting really down and pain is starting to increase. I have to swallow four times when I eat some things and told my nurse that and she says it is normal.
I have not yet been able to be pain free and nurse said it is too soon to expect that. I felt a little punk-ish until I got on here and read other posts and see that I am not alone. Thank you if you made it this far. Any suggestions or helpful advice, or just kind comments would be appreciated.
Teach, I have made paragraphs in your post to make it easier to read. Some of the members have tracking problems when reading. Thanks.
Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 3/28/2015 11:59:33 AM (GMT-6)