It is about 5 years since I unwittingly made a decision that was going to affect me for 5 more years to come. I had decided that if I was going to travel around Europe, I would have to take a backpack with me so that the future me could tell people I went backpacking around Europe. I spent no time wondering if my shoulders were going to be strong enough to serve the arduous task they were going to be assigned. While I remember coming back and writing a post about how happily smitten I was with the experience, I didn't speak of the mindnumbing pain I experienced in my shoulders every night. I do believe that the pain that stuck with me since then did germinate in those majestic train rides and walks across the Old Continent.
What followed were sporadic visits to multiple orthopaedists to explain my nightly shoulder pains and several X-rays of my shoulders from what seemed to be very contorted angles. This was typically followed by the doctors finding absolutely nothing and telling me to refrain from straining my shoulders.
It took me an alarming pain in my finger joints one morning to visit an orthopaedist in Chile for the first time. While that turned out to be a side-effect of a few swigs of a beer I didn't like from the previous night, I also hesitantly mentioned to the doctor my little problem with the shoulders in my imperfect Spanish, even as I had expected to live with that pain caused by the 24 year old me for the rest of my life. If you have made it to the grimy details till this point, you would guess that a lazy blogger will probably not dedicate a post to a futile visit to a doctor's clinic. And that's right, please imagine trumpets and drumroll as I say this - I was diagnosed with bursitis. How I have waited to be diagnosed and not made to feel like I had imaginary pains emanating from wholly normal shoulders! It turned out there was a tiny sac of fat that was formed on a tendon in my shoulder, just the kind of thing that cannot be found in X-rays and one of reasons we have more advanced technology in medical diagnosis today.
I was fascinated by the discovery, to know that there was a real physical cause meant that there was something that could be done about it. This aforementioned (I lived in England for 2 years, of course I am allowed to use the word) orthopaedist saw my reports and told me that he would have to inject a liquid straight into the structure, there were going to be no pills and no casts. And he also said, that he would have to do it, "ahora", which meant I had no time to prepare myself for enduring a needle through a bony shoulder.
That was three days ago and I am now back from a swimming lesson this morning, feeling smug about how I managed to finish a few laps and use my arms now that I have been nearly rid of the bursitis. There was the minor issue with me gulping down too much water and believing I was going to die for those few seconds today, but that is just small talk in the larger context of being identified with and relieved of bursitis.
The sun is shining, I can see the gorgeous Pacific Ocean from where I type this. It is unbelievable how far I can look out into the ocean today. My parents are visiting and I can freely throw my hands up in the air to celebrate the filter coffee my mum is going to make now.
¡Hasta luego y que tengan un muy buen fin de semana!
What followed were sporadic visits to multiple orthopaedists to explain my nightly shoulder pains and several X-rays of my shoulders from what seemed to be very contorted angles. This was typically followed by the doctors finding absolutely nothing and telling me to refrain from straining my shoulders.
It took me an alarming pain in my finger joints one morning to visit an orthopaedist in Chile for the first time. While that turned out to be a side-effect of a few swigs of a beer I didn't like from the previous night, I also hesitantly mentioned to the doctor my little problem with the shoulders in my imperfect Spanish, even as I had expected to live with that pain caused by the 24 year old me for the rest of my life. If you have made it to the grimy details till this point, you would guess that a lazy blogger will probably not dedicate a post to a futile visit to a doctor's clinic. And that's right, please imagine trumpets and drumroll as I say this - I was diagnosed with bursitis. How I have waited to be diagnosed and not made to feel like I had imaginary pains emanating from wholly normal shoulders! It turned out there was a tiny sac of fat that was formed on a tendon in my shoulder, just the kind of thing that cannot be found in X-rays and one of reasons we have more advanced technology in medical diagnosis today.
I was fascinated by the discovery, to know that there was a real physical cause meant that there was something that could be done about it. This aforementioned (I lived in England for 2 years, of course I am allowed to use the word) orthopaedist saw my reports and told me that he would have to inject a liquid straight into the structure, there were going to be no pills and no casts. And he also said, that he would have to do it, "ahora", which meant I had no time to prepare myself for enduring a needle through a bony shoulder.
That was three days ago and I am now back from a swimming lesson this morning, feeling smug about how I managed to finish a few laps and use my arms now that I have been nearly rid of the bursitis. There was the minor issue with me gulping down too much water and believing I was going to die for those few seconds today, but that is just small talk in the larger context of being identified with and relieved of bursitis.
The sun is shining, I can see the gorgeous Pacific Ocean from where I type this. It is unbelievable how far I can look out into the ocean today. My parents are visiting and I can freely throw my hands up in the air to celebrate the filter coffee my mum is going to make now.
¡Hasta luego y que tengan un muy buen fin de semana!
