So freaking frustrated….
and ticked at myself… I literally have not had a good workout in IDK how long. I pretty much gave up lifting after my back and shoulder started hurting back in July and I haven’t had a good cardio session since close to then either.
Back in July my back started hurting, so I went to Neuro Surgeon I know to get some advice. Well I told him about my upper back pain, the tingling and warmth up and down my arm into my fingers, the fireworks that shoot off in my back, and that my triceps felt like I had pulled them every time I bent my arm. He took a look of some MRI’s of the upper part of my spine and basically said well these don’t show anything is wrong with your back. So he manipulated my shoulder around and asked if that hurt. Well it hadn’t until he moved it a certain way, but he told me he thought I had a torn AC ligament (just fantastic) that may be contributing to my back pain. So he sends more to a pain management specialist, who for some reason doesn’t give a hoot about my shoulder and just writes me a script for back physical therapy and tells me to go get an epidural steroid injection (which I wasn’t too keen on, but did anyways). The doctor who gave me that gave me a cortisone shot into my shoulder as well. Neither helped my pain, so I was written an order to have a shoulder MRI done and an EMG done (EMG’s are done to test nerve damage and to test for carpal tunnel). The MRI showed swelling around my AC ligament but without a dye test MRI couldn’t really test much more (this I didn’t know until yesterday, glad my doctors are keeping me in the loop) and the EMG showed absolutely nothing. So I continue PT but it wasn’t helping my back and no one seemed to care about my shoulder so I just quit and I looked for new doctors. Well yesterday I finally had an appointment (8 months or more after my original pain) and this doctor tells me I can’t see anything wrong with your back it could just be muscle spasms so he gave me another cortisone shot into the main trigger point that causes my problems (hasn’t helped so far, but maybe in a few days the muscle will not be inflamed anymore) and ordered a dye MRI of my shoulder. So we will see what that shows. So after 5 doctors or more everyone says I’m unfixable because all the doctors have pretty much said I am not broken, yet I still have fireworks shooting off above my shoulder blade and I have a constant feeling of my hand falling asleep. Which the doctor yesterday told me, "just happens and I may just have to deal with it forever" (I’m freaking 22 and plan on having 60 or so good years left).
Anyways, the point of that big long speel is to express why I haven’t worked out in so long. Which caused me to gain about 20 pounds from not eating clean, stress, immobility and near depression from being injured. So yesterday I decide I am really gonna get up and work out! (which is my plan every day but I have just been so unmotivated) So I get up and decide I am just gonna workout in my room instead of going to the rec. So I pick up a pair of 12 lb dumbbells (which was way too light for me 8 months ago) and can’t do a thing, so I try my tens, again can’t do a thing, so I have to settle for a pair of 5’s which really just saddens me because I was using 25’s just last year, and my strength is so wimpy now. but I get in an okay workout before class with the 5’s anyways. Then I try to do some kickboxing, well it’s been so long since I have done cardio that the 20 min kickboxing video nearly just kills me. So now its like I am starting over, working back up to an hr of cardio, heavier weights, greater strength and greater endurance. I have decided that since "nothing is wrong with my back" I don’t care about not lifting or injuring myself further and maybe I will strain it to where someone can actually figure out whats wrong. The shoulder is sore today but it felt good to lift and move it around, so until I am told not to use it I will continue to work that out for now. But those 5 pounds just made me so sad! The good news is, I have lost 15 of those 20 pounds I gained from eating clean for the past month and doing this stair workout I made up (switching flights of wide stance squats and one legged squats down the six flights of stairs from my office and lunging, walking backwards and running back up and doing this six times a work day). I wish it would come off faster but at least its coming off I suppose, I wish I was back to my original starting point already though; that and the little endurance and strength I have now just frustrate and disappoint me…
April 10, 2009 at 5:56 am
Just keep positive and dont give up!
April 10, 2009 at 6:11 am
I hope your recovery is swift and complete… but you symptoms sre sond a lot like mine from a couple years ago. pain nder right shoulder blade, tingling & numbness in my fingers, weakness & pain in my right tricep… then my sttength on my right side started to decrease… I thought it was just muslce strains or having my neck ot of alignment. I went to chiropractors, physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, xrays, etc… bt not until I was "working through" the pain & warming up with some ridiculously light weights on bicep curls & I felt a pain in my upper back/neck region that literally took me to my knees- that I was diadnosed properly. Lckily my next door neighbor was the Chief Radiologist at a local hospital - got me there immediatly - had the mri’s, eegs, etc & fond my C5 disc had just "exploded" & was pressing against my spinal coumn - pinching the set of nerves like they were clamped in a vise grip that wouldn’t let go… worst pain in my life. Immediate surgery the next day to remove the disk & fuse the vertebrae… All the pain was gone - like magic the next day as but by raking so long to diagnose & treat has left my right pec & tricep noticeably smaller & wwaker than my left. The nerves were just damaged so severely that they arr still not right. I am busting my ass in the gym to force my body to develop alternate pathways in my nervous system to these muscles… it is working but the process is slow & frustrating. My top weights used to be my warmups - but I am making progress…
Well, long story, but lesson is - work hard - BUT if that pain or tingling come back - don’t ignore them - find another doctor - one that foesnt prescribe pain medication or cortisone shots to mask the problem. I found a chiropractor who is also a competitive bodybuilder - who in a matter of minutes fixed a recent shoulder pain & weakness problem I’ve been having for a year - that was keeping me from progressing in strenghtening my right side. I have made more progress in developing those lagging muscles since.
April 10, 2009 at 6:11 am
There are a couple of things to consider. Get a second opinion from a different specialist to make sure the original one didn’t over look anything.
It seems like you are on track and doing everything you can to get back to where you were. I know the frustration of things not happening fast enough. You can only focus on what you are doing now to get to where you need to be, NOT on where you want to be and where you are NOT.