I took the day off from work because I had a doctors appointment today and my appointment was for 2:45, which is about half an hour after the time I usually show up for work.I really do despise coming in to work late, even if it's planned ahead. Afterwards my whole day feels like I need to rush to get caught up. So instead, I scheduled the day off.
Besides, if the doctor said that I was going to require some sort of surgery I had a bazillion questions I wanted to ask before we went any farther.
So I get in there and he asks me some questions about what I do and how much I move my arm and where it hurts and whatnot. I explained about the popping noise and he moves my arm and makes it pop and says "Like that?" When I squeaked he said "Sorry."
He moves my arm around some more, his fingers feeling the tendons and muscles moving, then points to a couple of places and says "It hurts here, here and here, right?" I said he was right on the money.
He flips through my chart some more and says "Well, the good news is that you are doing everything right so far. Getting the x-rays and the MRI was a good idea. Keep wearing the elbow brace, use hot and cold packs and direct massage on the areas. Try to strengthen the arm slowly and give it lots of rest in between. It will either heal itself slowly or in the next say... three to five years you might need surgery on it. But not right now."
The Doc told me about what the surgery would be like if he needed to fix the tendon attachment to my elbow and told me three to four months recovery time on that and several months of physical therapy afterwards.
Yikes! Right now I have a little over four months sick time saved up. And if I had to spend three to four months not moving my arm or using my right hand at all (no jokes, please. I've already been there) I'd either end up dead, crazy or divorced or any combination thereof.
So the good news is no surgery. The bad news is that I'm going to have to let it heal on it's own. And he advised no more than two cortisone shots in a years time. So I could go get another one, since it's been seven months already, but I think I'll hold off. Wait until it's necessary.
Tomorrow it's back to work and one day closer to the weekend. And this weekend, if nothing else happens, I'm going to be finally replacing the old nasty carpet in my office with some nifty tile I found. I post some pics.
Wednesday is my comm room day. It's also Ugly Truck Contest Day. Mine is kinda ugly but it's no contest winner. It's also National Lollipop Day! (grinz at Sgt Uncle T)
