dislocated & discombobulated

What's the best thing to get for your birthday week? A DISLOCATED SHOULDER. Oh wait, no. That's not it AT ALL. Blerg.

I must have done something to my shoulder on Monday and then I slept on it weird that night so Tuesday it was really stiff and sore. I thought it was just a run-of-the-mill muscle sprain or something until Tuesday night when the shooting pains in my arm and ribs just about killed me. I wasn't able to sleep, let alone breathe (I had to take shallow breaths to keep from moving my ribs) or be comfortable in any way. On Wednesday, I spent almost the whole day in doctor's offices, waiting for physical therapy and stuff which helped a little but not a lot. The PT said that my bone had slipped a little bit out of place and was pinching a nerve, which also runs up through your neck and down through the ribs, which is why breathing was such torture. He said it's called "frozen shoulder" and some people do this to themselves by sneezing or coughing and sometimes through real trauma (like a car accident) but 9/10 times it's due to sleeping funky. Isn't that stupid? That you can damage yourself so thoroughly by SLEEPING?! I did a lot of stretches and stuff, but still I was monkeyed up AND GOOD. Thursday was my birthday, so I had scheduled the day off from work anyway, but had to cancel my all-day Disneyland trip because I was so messed up. I finally had to cave in and take some big drugs and it relaxed enough where it went back into place on Thursday afternoon.

I still feel pretty battered and bruised (and exhausted from not being able to sleep) but the nerve pains are subsiding for the most part. And for that I am very grateful. Now I can more or less breathe normally, but the muscles are so sore that I can't pick stuff up or, you know, vacuum (oh pity!). So this weekend, I won't be climbing any mountains or vacuuming (pity!), but will instead be going to physical therapy and watching movies and generally walking around with an ice pack at all time. Awesome.