Dr. Visit

On Wednesday, May 28, I had a visit with Dr. Welling. He is a great doctor, and took a look at my right shoulder, which has been in pain off and on for months. He diagnosed me with a strained levator scapulae muscle. This muscle runs from the diagonal tip of the shoulder blade, up the neck to one of the neck vertebrae. It helps stabilize the arm as you lift things in front of you or to the side. It helps with posture, and as I found out from doing some research on the web, is often injured in instances of whip lash. I don't have whip lash, but I do have a small child, and the activities involved in caring for this wonderful child, like feeding her, playing with her, bathing her, carrying her, and so forth, have put strain on this muscle. Dr. Welling told me that it sounds like I have been re-injuring this muscle repeatedly, thus the pain comes on, the muscle starts to heal, and the pain subsides, then something pulls it again, and the pain comes back. There isn't really anything that can be done, or needs to be done like surgery, or physical therapy, but he suggested finding some stretches from the internet, that could help this muscle, as well as taking anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen for a period of ten days, to give the muscle time to heal. He also warned me that if I don't find a different way to do the activities that are causing the damage, and the muscle continues to be re-injured, that more serious injury can occur. So, I've been taking motrin, and trying to handle Elise in a different way, and to use my left arm a lot more. Logan has also been wonderful, and is helping feed Elise, and carry her when he is with us. This is a big help, especially when we go out, and she becomes incredibly clingy. So, we're trying, but it may be slow going trying to learn to take care of Elise left handed!