|
Tomorrow you get filled:
Rough day today. Woke up sore, felt it spreading into my neck again. Felt it threaten my head — how muscle spasms can get in your brain pan I’ve no idea — and said “Nyet.”
So I took a painkiller, which somehow stayed with me all day in a way that they did not when I was using them every day. It made for a fairly listless and uncomfortable afternoon.
But the leftovers were good!
I once sat in a doctor’s office while everyone went to lunch. Seems everyone thought someone else had dismissed me. Boy were they embarassed!
It went back to the orthopedic surgeon for a checkup on my collarbone today. I waited for 45 minutes, most of it in the exam room.
And so I read things. Caught up on Twitter, skimmed some emails and so on. If you think about it too much it feels like you’ve been forgotten in the examination room. Fortunately there is that one painting, that one miserable print, for you to contemplate. That’s the one way they’ve left you to pass the time.*
I shot, edited and produced this little video while waiting on the doctor. Still had time to spare. If I’d known I had this kind of time I would have re-shot this to steady it up somehow. I would have brought in a tripod from the car. That wouldn’t have looked odd at all.
They took an X-ray. The doctor spent about five minutes with me. Showed me the X-ray. He pronounced my bones as healing nicely. He said the six screws are hexadecimals. I’ll be sure to pack a hexa-multitool if I ever want to do self-maintenance.
He blew off my muscle spasm issues. I could write paragraphs about them. They are in my left back and shoulder, in the teres minor/infraspinatus facia area. Sometimes it reaches all the way across to the right shoulder. Once or twice it has gotten into my neck. Two weekends ago it somehow got in my head. There is not much up there, but certainly no muscle! I wish this experience on no one.
I blame too much time in the car and not understanding how little exertion I can actually perform. It should seem, though, that after this many months muscle spasms would get better. The doctor has alternately told me six months or a year or Christmas, depending on his mood. A family friend promises this will continue on for some time. These are not the prognoses for which I am looking.
Also, as my mother reminds me: I am not under 30 anymore.
Anyway, the X-rays look good. The doctor says the bones are healing nicely. The heavy wet wool blanket feeling on the front and top of my shoulder has improved recently. I’m pleased with the collarbone.
Nearly — and sometimes entirely debilitating — muscle spasms are a drag. Don’t fall off your bike, kids.
*Also the doctor’s stool on which you can perform wheelies.
For dinner The Yankee and I celebrated with Cheeburger Cheeburger. We read each other trivia questions over our cheeseburgers, laughing and giggling and surely making The Yankee’s student, who was dining a few tables away, think we were perfectly silly.
We walked up the block, where the city had blocked off one of the roads for a downtown festive event. A band was playing. People were dancing, mostly the older folks. All the college kids have skipped town for Thanksgiving, so a special town feels no less special, but a bit less vibrant. It is a great place to be, and so we walked on the sidewalks on a cool November night, looking to harass friends that we might run into.
Finally we walked through one of the town’s two alleys, found the car and headed home. We’re going to watch movies all night. Great night.
Not sure what I’ve done. A few weeks ago my doctor heard how I, genius observer of things, had come to note a correlation between exertion and pain in my collarbone and shoulder. And, I went on astounding him with my powers of perception, it doesn’t take much to over-exert my dinged wing and find myself in a bad way.
He took me off the self-directed therapy sessions which was derivative of the successfully accomplished and officially guided therapy sessions. He told me to do a lot less. Aside from a very few things I have done much less as my shoulder and collarbone continue to heal.
For instance, this week, I’ve done nothing that would make my surgeon or wife mad at me. And yet my shoulder is all out of whack. There are spasms and other things that radiate from my left shoulder, over into my right shoulder, U-turn and then come back and go up into my neck and, like a sick joke, into my head.
If there’s such a thing as good days and bad days, I’m experiencing that this week and it is not cool. This began sometime last weekend and has been growing less pleasant all week.
There is the possibility, one supposes, that some of this might be the return of sensation in my shoulder. Sometimes I feel more than others. And, usually, I’d rather not. If that is contributing to this problem or not I don’t know. I am a keen observer of the human condition — read above — but it takes awhile.
I can say this: having the sensation of a dull, round, cold cylinder shoved through your shoulder, across your back and somehow up into your neck and the top of your head is a drag.
Don’t break your collarbone, kids. How one good break, surgery, titanium and screws can adversely impact everything from your shoulder blades up proves the accuracy of Dem Bones.
So back to the medicine, then.
Also, the lovely autumn:
Not the best day today. Tried to ride my stationary bike a little, but there was nothing gratifying about it. I don’t think that did it, but I felt pretty lousy for the rest of the day thereafter. My shoulder I mean, hurt in ways it hasn’t for a while.
So I guess I’m in the good days and bad days phase? OK, fine. I missed the scar tissue sequence that I was promised was such a joy. My therapy was unexciting, but not horrible as promised. I have more good days than bad. I can deal with all that.
If I just sit very still.
Shot this video late in the afternoon. Didn’t come out quite as I’d hoped. The way the sun was dancing in the leaves was beautiful, and I didn’t quite capture it. But this is still pretty nice:
I dozed off in my chair this evening. I’ll blame the medication. Had dinner and found myself wide awake. Great. Another one of those nights.
So I watched Valkyrie. It wasn’t that great. IMDB notes:
David Bamber (Adolf Hitler) is the only non-German cast member who speaks with a German accent. The filmmakers felt that audiences would be distracted by Hitler speaking in Bamber’s natural British accent.
Because everyone else speaking in their native, non-German accented English was perfectly normal sounding. At least five of the generals, for example, were played by English actors.
I’m on a two-movie streak right now. Previously I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which had both Gary Oldman and Colin Firth and refused to go anywhere. Maybe the point was: The spy game isn’t as exciting as movies suggest. And here’s a guy that’s been killed most brutually.
So I guess the next movie I TiVo should be an obvious winner. Or maybe I should just stick with watching the leaves.
Today I purchased the 2013 sticker for my car tag. Take that, Mayans.
My DMV experience lasted 33 minutes, which was the longest I’ve ever waited in my two years visiting this particular office. But it is the end of the month.
Usually the post office here takes longer than the DMV. I’m pretty sure I’ve tapped my toe in our post office for longer than 33 minutes.
This was nowhere near my longest DMV experience. I seem to mention the DMV every year. Once, in Bessemer, I read the better part of a book while in line. I seem to recall I took a two-hour lunch break to mutter at the DMV in Homewood one year. The other times I’ve bothered to quantify it have all been four, six, 20 minutes or noted as “painless.” I checked.
I’ve had a big week, coupled with a long few days, where I did too many things and now my shoulder is informing me I regret those decisions. Can’t wait to tell the ortho about it next week.
Suffice it to say, because I’m tired of even writing about it: I’ve figured out it takes precious little to aggravate my collarbone, the muscles in my one shoulder and, when that really gets going, across my back into the other shoulder and up into my neck. Maybe I should do less.
Maybe I should do like these guys:
This is studying on the Samford quad. Hammocks are a big part of the culture here. I’m surprised the administration allows it to continue, but I’m proud they do. I’m also surprised the hammock scenes don’t make their way into more of the promotional literature they send out.
I should write a memo about that …
Nah. I’m taking the rest of the evening off from writing.
Tomorrow: the return of an old friend!
