I basically ignored it. I figured it would go away. When Laurel was 9 months old and I was ready to lose the baby weight, I started exercising and was bothered by the elbow pain still. Boo. I saw my Primary Care doctor who recommended physical therapy. Shane had had physical therapy on his shoulder recently and it went well for him, so I was eager to give it a shot. I went to PT twice a week from basically from December 2012 to May 2013, taking off a week or two here or there for various reasons. It was a lot of stress on my family, and it didn't even really work.
In April I started looking at other options. I got one of those cortisone shots in my elbow. My aunt had said she had the same kind of problem and the elbow shot totally fixed her. I was hopeful.... It hurt like HECK, but when it finally felt better I supposed I did feel better. I didn't have any pain for awhile, but over time I started feeling pain again. By June I figured the shot didn't really work.
It wasn't as if things were just as bad as Day 1. I actually feel like the pain evolved. I had less pain doing things like pulling laundry or weeds, and more pain doing things like cutting vegetables or picking up my daughter. Some days my elbow really hurt, and other days I didn't feel it at all. One doctor said people can experience residual pain from the particular drug used in the cortisone shot, and when that "shot-related pain" wears off the actual tendinitis pain is gone. I suppose I was hoping for that, but as the months wore on I got more weary. In the course of self treatment I had tried applying ice packs and heat packs, taking handfuls of Advil, just taking it easy, and more, and things weren't better or even looking like they'd improve.
I really had no clue what was right or true.
In July I got an MRI. I started seeing an elbow guy, who was very nonchalant about the whole thing, telling me I had "classic tendinitis of the elbow" and since it had gone on for 18 months there was no way it would go away, and I just needed to get surgery to fix it. He'd go in there, at the elbow, clean up all the inflammation, reattach the tendons, etc., and I'd be all better.
It wasn't as if things were just as bad as Day 1. I actually feel like the pain evolved. I had less pain doing things like pulling laundry or weeds, and more pain doing things like cutting vegetables or picking up my daughter. Some days my elbow really hurt, and other days I didn't feel it at all. One doctor said people can experience residual pain from the particular drug used in the cortisone shot, and when that "shot-related pain" wears off the actual tendinitis pain is gone. I suppose I was hoping for that, but as the months wore on I got more weary. In the course of self treatment I had tried applying ice packs and heat packs, taking handfuls of Advil, just taking it easy, and more, and things weren't better or even looking like they'd improve.
I really had no clue what was right or true.
I just didn't like this option. I thought about it for some time, and asked my PT and other friends some advice. I decided to get two second opinions. My PT recommended one guy, and his suggestion was this fancy technology that's new and not covered by insurance. It would have been about $700. (The technology is this... they pull out some of your OWN BLOOD and they "spin" it so it's reduced to just high concentrates of red blood cells or something, then they inject your own blood back in you. The goal isn't healing, actually the goal is MORE INFLAMMATION, but they say that with a lot of inflammation and your OWN super-charged miracle blood, your body heals itself better.) The doctor didn't try to "sell" me, he just laid out the pluses and minuses of the technology and left it up to me. It sounded intriguing, but who knew.
This brings us to Dr. Ericson. By this point, I had seen four different doctors about this elbow problem. At each one I had to start from the beginning, tell my story, etc. I had to explain my pain and the evolution and my concerns. Well, Dr. Ericson is a "hand" guy so I was skeptical at first that he could even help me. A friend of mine had terrible wrist problems before she had kids and he helped her, so I decided to go ahead and see him for my final second opinion (a "third" opinion actually).
He walked in the room and asked what I was there for. I said I'd had elbow pain for 2 years and wanted some answers. He took one look at me, and with kinda a twinkle in his eye said, "I can fix you." Then, to all amazement, he took his finger and touched a spot on my elbow and said, "I bet you hurt the most right... here." Boom on the money. Then he told me how my shoulder probably hurt (I didn't realize it, but when he touched the muscle it did hurt), and he said the next thing to hurt would be the bicep. He explained the evolution of my pain and he explained the CAUSE of my pain. See, tendinitis wasn't the problem. Tendinitis was a symptom of a bigger problem.
The actual phrase is.... proximal median nerve entrapment / radial tunnel syndrome. Or some combination of the two. The jist is this.... in the physiology of my arm, and in a lot of people's arms (it's genetic and happens often), there are some muscles and tendons and such that are criss-crossed in the forearm area. This leads to some weakness in grip strength, so what people do, unknowingly, is compensate by moving their wrist a certain angle. By just tweaking the grip slightly, the strength that was lacking is gained. However, that creates a host of problems. For me, the muscle that runs up the forearm and connects to the elbow was strengthened so much by use that it bulged and ripped right off the elbow, causing lots of inflammation, pain, reduced grip strength, etc. Of course, what's funny about all this is that when you first start having pain, you continue to "re-train" yourself and do activities just a touch different to reduce pain, in essence strengthening more muscles (that really aren't supposed to be strengthened) and creating more of a chain of events mess.
I was skeptical of the first doctor, who just wanted to "clean up" my inflammation. And I was skeptical of the second doctor, who wanted to do this new technology on me (which the third doctor said hurts like heck). But for the third doctor, as much as I wanted to be skeptical, he convinced me that this was right. He knew where my pain was. He could explain my grip strength problems (some I didn't even realize I had). He SAW me overcompensate in his office. And -- here's the kicker -- he said this happens all the time to 1) women who are 2) loose jointed, 3) stubborn, and 4) very busy. We don't have time to deal with it, so we ignore it and hope it goes away, and it doesn't. It gets worse. It got worse.
Unfortunately, the cure was surgery -- but at least I was confident this wasn't a band-aid surgery, an unnecessary surgery, a shot-in-the-dark surgery. I knew the reasons behind what was going on and I knew the root cause of my problem would be fixed. It felt kinda exciting to be able to explain this and feel empowered and yes, feel like his description of the problem totally fit me!
And that, my friends, is how we got to Monday. I had used up all my medical deductible for the year, so I convinced Shane to take an extra week off work (Boeing already gets the 24th-1st off), and I had surgery on Monday the 16th.
By the time Monday got here I was dreading it but also really looking forward to it. I didn't want surgery but I wanted this pain to go away! I felt so comforted to know I'd be fixed! I'd be able to cut butternut squash without wincing! I'd be able to pick up Laurel! I'd have strength to pull the toughest of the weeds!
At my pre-op last week and again in the pre-op room at the hospital, I continued to want to be absolutely sure. I kept telling Dr. Ericson, "you're a hand guy, my hand doesn't hurt," and his nurse would correct me, "he's an arm guy." He'd look me in the eye and tell me he was completely confident I'd get all better. At my pre-op appointment he was feeling around my elbow and even found what he thought was a bone spur. For lots of people, bone spurs aren't that big of a deal, but if you have muscles and tendons that are enlarged and slipping and sliding all over the place, it could really hurt. Um, ME!!!! I suppose I was actually eager for him to get in there so he knew exactly what was what.
On Monday Shane dropped me off and jetted home to put Wesley on the school bus. I wasn't allowed to eat anything so I was equal parts terrified and starving. Dr. Ericson was behind so I got to wait it out even longer than I expected.
The anesthesiologist comes to visit you first. You can ask him whatever you want. I asked him a fairly thoughtful question about how general anesthesia works, and then I said I just wanted to wake up afterwards. He said that is actually his #1 priority -- lots of patients come in and ask him to please make sure they go to sleep, but that is the #2 priority. I appreciated that.
When it finally all happened, I was in a rush. I had to text Shane so he knew I was finally going in (Dr. was an hour late by then!), get to the bathroom, and breathe. Remember I'm starving so I kinda want this to be over so I can eat already.
The OR room is bright and freaky. You lay down on the table and I just remember saying to myself, "I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out." They got the IV in me, they hooked some kinda of oxygen thing up to my ear, they wrapped my legs in compression bands, and then the nice lady said, "OK Angela, it's time for your nap. Just breathe deeply." They put a mask on my face. I remember staring at the ceiling and taking two deep breaths, and on the third breath the lights started getting fuzzy. That was it.
I actually felt like I had dreamed, like I really slept. The anesthesiologist says not a lot of people say that. Surgery isn't really "restful," it's just kind of a "pause."
The first thing I heard was, "OK Angela, you should be waking up now." My eyes opened. My arm was all bandaged up. I was SO TIRED. SO TIRED. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep! They gave me some gingerale and Saltines. I sat there for awhile. At one point I asked someone what time it was, and the math didn't make sense in my head so I felt like I'd lost an hour somewhere in there.
Dr. Ericson checked in with me after I woke up, and told me he fixed everything. The tendon was reattached, the bone spur was taken care of, this forearm muscle of mine was HUGE and one of the largest he's seen (I'm a busy mom!), so it made plenty of sense why I had pain. I don't remember anything else. I'm curious to speak to him while NOT in a mental fog at my post-op next week.
Shane got there (thank heaven for my friend Vicki who watched the kiddos so he could be with me) and got instructions to give me lots of drugs.
This brings us to Dr. Ericson. By this point, I had seen four different doctors about this elbow problem. At each one I had to start from the beginning, tell my story, etc. I had to explain my pain and the evolution and my concerns. Well, Dr. Ericson is a "hand" guy so I was skeptical at first that he could even help me. A friend of mine had terrible wrist problems before she had kids and he helped her, so I decided to go ahead and see him for my final second opinion (a "third" opinion actually).
He walked in the room and asked what I was there for. I said I'd had elbow pain for 2 years and wanted some answers. He took one look at me, and with kinda a twinkle in his eye said, "I can fix you." Then, to all amazement, he took his finger and touched a spot on my elbow and said, "I bet you hurt the most right... here." Boom on the money. Then he told me how my shoulder probably hurt (I didn't realize it, but when he touched the muscle it did hurt), and he said the next thing to hurt would be the bicep. He explained the evolution of my pain and he explained the CAUSE of my pain. See, tendinitis wasn't the problem. Tendinitis was a symptom of a bigger problem.
The actual phrase is.... proximal median nerve entrapment / radial tunnel syndrome. Or some combination of the two. The jist is this.... in the physiology of my arm, and in a lot of people's arms (it's genetic and happens often), there are some muscles and tendons and such that are criss-crossed in the forearm area. This leads to some weakness in grip strength, so what people do, unknowingly, is compensate by moving their wrist a certain angle. By just tweaking the grip slightly, the strength that was lacking is gained. However, that creates a host of problems. For me, the muscle that runs up the forearm and connects to the elbow was strengthened so much by use that it bulged and ripped right off the elbow, causing lots of inflammation, pain, reduced grip strength, etc. Of course, what's funny about all this is that when you first start having pain, you continue to "re-train" yourself and do activities just a touch different to reduce pain, in essence strengthening more muscles (that really aren't supposed to be strengthened) and creating more of a chain of events mess.
I was skeptical of the first doctor, who just wanted to "clean up" my inflammation. And I was skeptical of the second doctor, who wanted to do this new technology on me (which the third doctor said hurts like heck). But for the third doctor, as much as I wanted to be skeptical, he convinced me that this was right. He knew where my pain was. He could explain my grip strength problems (some I didn't even realize I had). He SAW me overcompensate in his office. And -- here's the kicker -- he said this happens all the time to 1) women who are 2) loose jointed, 3) stubborn, and 4) very busy. We don't have time to deal with it, so we ignore it and hope it goes away, and it doesn't. It gets worse. It got worse.
By the time Monday got here I was dreading it but also really looking forward to it. I didn't want surgery but I wanted this pain to go away! I felt so comforted to know I'd be fixed! I'd be able to cut butternut squash without wincing! I'd be able to pick up Laurel! I'd have strength to pull the toughest of the weeds!
At my pre-op last week and again in the pre-op room at the hospital, I continued to want to be absolutely sure. I kept telling Dr. Ericson, "you're a hand guy, my hand doesn't hurt," and his nurse would correct me, "he's an arm guy." He'd look me in the eye and tell me he was completely confident I'd get all better. At my pre-op appointment he was feeling around my elbow and even found what he thought was a bone spur. For lots of people, bone spurs aren't that big of a deal, but if you have muscles and tendons that are enlarged and slipping and sliding all over the place, it could really hurt. Um, ME!!!! I suppose I was actually eager for him to get in there so he knew exactly what was what.
On Monday Shane dropped me off and jetted home to put Wesley on the school bus. I wasn't allowed to eat anything so I was equal parts terrified and starving. Dr. Ericson was behind so I got to wait it out even longer than I expected.
The anesthesiologist comes to visit you first. You can ask him whatever you want. I asked him a fairly thoughtful question about how general anesthesia works, and then I said I just wanted to wake up afterwards. He said that is actually his #1 priority -- lots of patients come in and ask him to please make sure they go to sleep, but that is the #2 priority. I appreciated that.
When it finally all happened, I was in a rush. I had to text Shane so he knew I was finally going in (Dr. was an hour late by then!), get to the bathroom, and breathe. Remember I'm starving so I kinda want this to be over so I can eat already.
The OR room is bright and freaky. You lay down on the table and I just remember saying to myself, "I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out, I'm freaking out." They got the IV in me, they hooked some kinda of oxygen thing up to my ear, they wrapped my legs in compression bands, and then the nice lady said, "OK Angela, it's time for your nap. Just breathe deeply." They put a mask on my face. I remember staring at the ceiling and taking two deep breaths, and on the third breath the lights started getting fuzzy. That was it.
I actually felt like I had dreamed, like I really slept. The anesthesiologist says not a lot of people say that. Surgery isn't really "restful," it's just kind of a "pause."
The first thing I heard was, "OK Angela, you should be waking up now." My eyes opened. My arm was all bandaged up. I was SO TIRED. SO TIRED. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep! They gave me some gingerale and Saltines. I sat there for awhile. At one point I asked someone what time it was, and the math didn't make sense in my head so I felt like I'd lost an hour somewhere in there.
Dr. Ericson checked in with me after I woke up, and told me he fixed everything. The tendon was reattached, the bone spur was taken care of, this forearm muscle of mine was HUGE and one of the largest he's seen (I'm a busy mom!), so it made plenty of sense why I had pain. I don't remember anything else. I'm curious to speak to him while NOT in a mental fog at my post-op next week.
Shane got there (thank heaven for my friend Vicki who watched the kiddos so he could be with me) and got instructions to give me lots of drugs.
This recovery week has been interesting, to say the least. I don't really HURT, more I'm just SORE. The muscles they moved around are just sore. I only started to feel the incision spots maybe yesterday. I was on a lot of narcotics, which have their own set of terrible side effects. I quit them cold turkey and basically I went through withdrawals so that felt awful too. Some of these side effects have been worse than my actual arm pain.
I've had to take a shower with my bandages covered. That's kinda lame. I'll cut a hole in the end of a bag that newspaper came in and pull it up my arm like a sleeve, then Shane duct tapes it closed. Haha. It's hard to shampoo my own hair, and put it up in a hair clip even. I can't write, I can't grip a pencil. Typing is ok, but I need to take breaks (I've written this post over a few days!). I'm not cooking or doing anything really, since I can't grip. I hesitate to even read the kids stories since they jump around and are busy, and sometimes they've run into my arm and it's been painful. Soooo basically I can't wait for things to be more normal. I just want to be able to write with a pencil and buckle my kids into their car seats. I tried to reeeeeach for something on the floor the other day and I definitely could NOT do that. Boo.
On the one hand, it has been SUPER nice that Christmas was DONE by the 15th. Like, awesome. Plus I scheduled Laurel's birthday party for early and made sure the surgery was after her big day. Then, I made no plans for the rest of the month so that's been good for recovery.
On the one hand, it has been SUPER nice that Christmas was DONE by the 15th. Like, awesome. Plus I scheduled Laurel's birthday party for early and made sure the surgery was after her big day. Then, I made no plans for the rest of the month so that's been good for recovery.
I've been reading, sleeping, and watching some movies. I've been a slug. I read my book club book in a few days (totally didn't love it) and now I'm getting quickly through a Nicholas Sparks book, since his are easy to digest. Last night awesome Vicki took me on a date to see Catching Fire and it was probably my first trip out of the house. That felt good! She even snuck in popcorn for us :-)
It's been a wild ride. My post-op appointment is Tuesday and I'm eager to get the bandages off and see how things are healing. I'm expecting it'll be about four weeks for recovery.
Well 2013, you did your worst. I'm ready to move on.
Well 2013, you did your worst. I'm ready to move on.
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