Day 96 of 365 Days of Being Thankful
Today I am thankful that Dan is taking off to drive me to my doctor's appointment. I have torn rotator cuffs on both shoulders. I can live with the right shoulder but the left shoulder is too painful. Apparently calcium deposits form from the tears. That is what causes the pain.
I went to see an orthopedic doctor. He happens to be the doctor for the Villanova basketball Team. He travels with the team. I wonder if he gets paid for it or volunteers for it. He told me that he loves traveling with the team because he is a Villanova grad. Dr. Duncan told me that he's going to give me a series of ten injections, all in a row. If it works and flushes out some or all of the calcium, I then have to go to physical therapy. I am nervous! He said it can get better, stay the same or create another tear and get worse! I am willing to risk it. If it gets worse or makes another tear, I will have to have shoulder surgery to repair it. I don't like the thought of that! This is what I found online:
The Radiologist identifies the calcium deposit in your rotator cuff using an ultrasound machine. After the calcium in your rotator cuff is identified they will numb your skin with local anesthesia. When the skin is numb, the surgeon can place a needle into the calcium deposit and “wash it out. "In the majority of people the calcium deposit has the feel of toothpaste, making it relatively easy for a radiologist or surgeon to wash it out of your rotator cuff. It is usually not a hard deposit like bone. Although rare, in a few people the calcium deposit will be too hard to wash out.
The pain relief is usually noticed within a day or two. After the procedure you will be sore for a few days, but the pain should be much different. Usually with a week or so most of you are feeling much better. The inflammation found in calcific tendonitis can also cause stiffness in many shoulders. After the injection some people will need physical therapy to improve your shoulder motion and help you return to normal strength and function.
With my luck, the calcium deposits will be hard instead of soft!
I just got back from the procedure. I am thankful that it is over! The doctor was able to extract some of the calcium in my shoulder. He had the screen up the whole time so I could see the needle being inserted into my shoulder and move around. He numbed my arm but it only worked a little. When he hit the calcium, the pain shot through my arm to my teeth to my head! I wanted to scream!! I am so glad it is over. He told me to try not to use my arm much for the next two days..........like that will happen! If this works and I forget about the pain, I'll do the right shoulder. The calcium deposits in that arm are much more plentiful. I injured my right arm after a huge storm when we had lost electricity for over 24 hours. I emptied my freezer and it was full. Dan was away so I pulled the full and heavy trash can up my hilly driveway by driving it up. I opened the window and pulled it up with my right arm and tore my rotator cuff. Stupid me!!
Work on the GLAM ROOM continues. We went to the craft store and got two cans of glossy white spray paint for the small dresser! We stopped at CVS on the way home. Olivia wanted to get fake eyelashes to practice with. She has extremely long lashes but she wants them to grow longer. She puts Vaseline on her eyelashes at night, she says it makes them grow longer. That doesn't make sense to me. When Olivia was adopted at age 9, she was placed in fourth grade. Her teacher asked her if she was wearing mascara. It was against the dress code for elementary kids to wear make-up to school. She wasn't wearing mascara, she just has beautiful, long dark lashes! I would never have allowed a 9 year old to wear any make-up! Personally, I think parents should decide whether or not their elementary kids could wear make-up to school. But I would never allow it even though I disagree with the rule! I am a rules-follower for the most part.
Olivia came to the U.S. in June of 2007. She was conversationally fluent before she started school that September. The school placed her in ESL classes five mornings a week. I called them and told the principal that she did not need to be to be in ESL classes and I wanted her back in her classroom. English was not going to be her second language, it was going to be her "first" second language. It wasn't like she was going to come home and speak Russian to her family. Many ESL kids go home and speak to their family in their native language, that was not going to be the case for Olivia. We don't know any Russian. The principal knew me because Renee had attended that school for kindergarten before she was placed in the gifted program. He told me that the only way he could not place Olivia in ESL was for a religious exemption, I didn't have one. He asked me what I could agree to do with ESL classes. I eventually agreed to let her go to ESL three mornings a week. I grew to love her ESL teachers, they were the best. When some of the kids were teasing Olivia about not knowing English, the ESL teachers created a lesson for the class. They came in and played a short story in Russian. Then they asked the class questions in Russian, the only person with their hand in the air to answer every question was Olivia. They explained to the class that listening to the Russian story and not being ale to answer any questions was exactly what it was like for Olivia all day. The ESL teachers told me that they never had a student who learned English as fast as Olivia learned it! That was because Olivia couldn't stand to listen to Renee and I have a conversation without her! Olivia's first week at school in the U.S. was a memorable one. She came home and told me that boys pee in the sinks in America. Apparently she had never seen a urinal.
She wandered into the boys bathroom by mistake and the boys went crazy yelling at her to get out. I guess she saw them standing at the urinals urinating!
Olivia created a gofundme page for her GLAM ROOM and asked me to share it!
The Radiologist identifies the calcium deposit in your rotator cuff using an ultrasound machine. After the calcium in your rotator cuff is identified they will numb your skin with local anesthesia. When the skin is numb, the surgeon can place a needle into the calcium deposit and “wash it out. "In the majority of people the calcium deposit has the feel of toothpaste, making it relatively easy for a radiologist or surgeon to wash it out of your rotator cuff. It is usually not a hard deposit like bone. Although rare, in a few people the calcium deposit will be too hard to wash out.
The pain relief is usually noticed within a day or two. After the procedure you will be sore for a few days, but the pain should be much different. Usually with a week or so most of you are feeling much better. The inflammation found in calcific tendonitis can also cause stiffness in many shoulders. After the injection some people will need physical therapy to improve your shoulder motion and help you return to normal strength and function.
With my luck, the calcium deposits will be hard instead of soft!
I just got back from the procedure. I am thankful that it is over! The doctor was able to extract some of the calcium in my shoulder. He had the screen up the whole time so I could see the needle being inserted into my shoulder and move around. He numbed my arm but it only worked a little. When he hit the calcium, the pain shot through my arm to my teeth to my head! I wanted to scream!! I am so glad it is over. He told me to try not to use my arm much for the next two days..........like that will happen! If this works and I forget about the pain, I'll do the right shoulder. The calcium deposits in that arm are much more plentiful. I injured my right arm after a huge storm when we had lost electricity for over 24 hours. I emptied my freezer and it was full. Dan was away so I pulled the full and heavy trash can up my hilly driveway by driving it up. I opened the window and pulled it up with my right arm and tore my rotator cuff. Stupid me!!
Work on the GLAM ROOM continues. We went to the craft store and got two cans of glossy white spray paint for the small dresser! We stopped at CVS on the way home. Olivia wanted to get fake eyelashes to practice with. She has extremely long lashes but she wants them to grow longer. She puts Vaseline on her eyelashes at night, she says it makes them grow longer. That doesn't make sense to me. When Olivia was adopted at age 9, she was placed in fourth grade. Her teacher asked her if she was wearing mascara. It was against the dress code for elementary kids to wear make-up to school. She wasn't wearing mascara, she just has beautiful, long dark lashes! I would never have allowed a 9 year old to wear any make-up! Personally, I think parents should decide whether or not their elementary kids could wear make-up to school. But I would never allow it even though I disagree with the rule! I am a rules-follower for the most part.
Olivia came to the U.S. in June of 2007. She was conversationally fluent before she started school that September. The school placed her in ESL classes five mornings a week. I called them and told the principal that she did not need to be to be in ESL classes and I wanted her back in her classroom. English was not going to be her second language, it was going to be her "first" second language. It wasn't like she was going to come home and speak Russian to her family. Many ESL kids go home and speak to their family in their native language, that was not going to be the case for Olivia. We don't know any Russian. The principal knew me because Renee had attended that school for kindergarten before she was placed in the gifted program. He told me that the only way he could not place Olivia in ESL was for a religious exemption, I didn't have one. He asked me what I could agree to do with ESL classes. I eventually agreed to let her go to ESL three mornings a week. I grew to love her ESL teachers, they were the best. When some of the kids were teasing Olivia about not knowing English, the ESL teachers created a lesson for the class. They came in and played a short story in Russian. Then they asked the class questions in Russian, the only person with their hand in the air to answer every question was Olivia. They explained to the class that listening to the Russian story and not being ale to answer any questions was exactly what it was like for Olivia all day. The ESL teachers told me that they never had a student who learned English as fast as Olivia learned it! That was because Olivia couldn't stand to listen to Renee and I have a conversation without her! Olivia's first week at school in the U.S. was a memorable one. She came home and told me that boys pee in the sinks in America. Apparently she had never seen a urinal.
Olivia created a gofundme page for her GLAM ROOM and asked me to share it!
This is Olivia's go fund me page
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