America's North Shore Journal

I do not need a new right shoulder. I merely need an oil change and a good tuneup.

My trip to the “shoulder doc” was amazing. If hospitals only worked this well.

I was taken in to an exam room promptly. The PA seeing me arrived within two minutes. I was x-rayed in the same area, digital x-rays that were available within five minutes.

I was treated and out within about 50 minutes.

Don’t those people know they’re medical professionals? [/sarcasm]

My rotator cuff, all four of whatever they’re called, is badly irritated but not torn. The PA demonstrated what I would not be able to do if I had a tear.

I got a shot of cortisone and novacaine. Further description will be below the fold for the queasy.

Dude! The needle was four inches long!!

She painted me with betadine. Then she froze the area with ethyl chloride. Then, from behind, she stuck the needle into my shoulder from the front.

It went in, and I could feel it slip into the void space in the shoulder. Way cool feeling. Then it hit the irritated part. I cried like a girl. Well, no, but I said “Ow!’ and I could feel that it was very sore.

The shot took a minute, slowly pushing the meds in.

I am not to lift anything for two days. Take Motrin, 3 pills, 3 times a day. I am to call for PT appointment, since she was able to aptly demonstrate just how much range of motion I have lost on the right. Oh, boy… I did not realize.

Back in 6 weeks if it doesn’t clear up.

Digital x-rays were amazingly clear to read. Shoulder looks pretty good, little arthritis and all the parts are gapped they way they ought to be.

Could have been caused by my fall about five weeks ago, or by hardly anything at all.

If all medical care was this fast and efficient, well, it would be the twenty-first century.