Posted by cubbybear on March 18, 2005, at 5:00:44
In reply to Re: Analgesics » cubbybear, posted by ed_uk on March 17, 2005, at 12:35:47
> >shoulder injury that I sustained in a fall 6 weeks ago.
>
> Do your doctors have any idea how quickly it might heal?No one can ever say exactly since everyone is different. Also, the orthopedist has not taken an MRI (yet) so his diagnosis is based on a basic physical exam, manipulating the joint, etc. He said about 3 wks. ago that it could be a month or more, but I say, no way. I think it could be many months, judging on the (near) lack of progress over the past 6 weeks and reading/hearing elsewhere that shoulder injuries can take many months to heal. My biggest fear is being told that I'll need surgery--not least of which is because I'm taking Parnate and that raises all sorts of issues vis a vis anaesthesia.
>
> What type of damage have you done to your shoulder?Again, based solely on a non-MRI exam, he says it's a ruptured bicepital tendon. Don't know the extent of it without an MRI, or if anything else got torn. A sonogram revealed no fractures or bone abnormalities.
>
> Do you have pain at rest or only on movement? Perhaps you have pain at rest which gets worse on movement.No, there's never pain at rest, but only during certain movements, such as bringing the arm up and out to a horizontal or vertical position. Getting up in the morning is the absolute worst since we naturally move our arms into these positions while we sleep. Also I have three different KINDS of pain including pain from the original injury, plus pain that seems like it's muscle spasms plus something else occasionally, which feels like clicking inside the shoulder joint--a very common symptom of this kind of injury.
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> >Several different meds did nothing to help.
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> What have you tried so far? What doses?Keep in mind that I live in Thailand and the names might be different:
a) Voltaren --NSAID pills, generally as needed, at most 50-100 mg/day
b) Myonal--muscle relaxant --as needed about 50-100 mg. day
c) Neurontin-used mostly as a sleeping aid , as needed 100 mg./day, not every day.
You can see that I've been taking these meds very conservatively. Perhaps Id have better results if they were taken at full dose on a daily basis, but so far I don't want to overdo it with the NSAID (risk of gastrointestinal problems) nor with the Neurontin.
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> >I've had 2 sessions this past week and, so far so good.
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> It sounds very promising :-)
I'm holding forth a conclusion on the acupuncture for at least another week or so, but thanks for your good wishes anyway.cubbybear
poster:cubbybear
thread:470781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/472376.html