Category: pain

Dislocated Shoulder

May 11, 2007 / / 2 Comments

Yesterday, I partially dislocated my shoulder when I was hipthrown in Tae Soo Do practice.

It had been a while since I’d been thrown, so I seriously screwed up the landing. To give you an idea how I fell, imagine lying on a bed face down with one arm dangling over the side. Lift your forearm so that it’s parallel to the floor. Now imagine the bed vanishes, and you land with all your weight on your forearm and elbow, shoving the top of your humerus past its usual orbit towards your shoulder blade.

I heard and felt the crunch/pop before I’d completely hit the ground, and knew that I’d seriously screwed something up. I tried to push myself up off the ground using my now-nonfunctional arm, only to find–much to my surprise–that it wasn’t responding. It wasn’t numb and it didn’t hurt. It just refused to move.

“I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”

I laid there for a bit, waiting for my arm to respond again, while a general air of “Oh, fuck–now what?” gripped the rest of the students and the instructor. I got a few offers for rides to the emergency room, but declined them. It hurt, but not much. Fortunately, one of the other students is a professional massage therapist specializing in injuries, and he popped my shoulder back into joint for me.

I went home, pulled a sling out of the closet from a shoulder injury last year, then bought some beer and a large burrito. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for today for my knee anyway, so I figured I’d just wait and save the extra $30 my insurance company would charge for an emergency room visit.

The doctor today agreed with my assessment, took a few X-rays he knew beforehand wouldn’t show anything useful (they didn’t), and told me to take it easy for a few weeks. I asked for a referral to physical therapy to prevent further injuries and some sleeping pills. I woke up several times last night with my ring and little fingers tingling because I’d been sleeping on my side, and apparently on the nerve that runs to them. When I sleep deeply, I sleep on my back instead of my sides. He gave them to me.

Other than the minor pain and popping in my shoulder, I’m ok. I’m hoping that if I actually do the PT exercises I get, I’ll make a full recovery.

Static Electricity

February 5, 2007 / / 1 Comment

I’ve never lived in a house with nothing but wood floors before. Being the depths of winter, the air is incredibly dry as well–which means stunning amounts of static electricity.

I had no idea how much static electricity you can build up just walking around, sitting on the couch, or lying in bed. I’ve been shocked more times in the last week than I was all of last winter. I’m starting to see some weird effects… stuff I didn’t even know was possible.

We have a bare compact fluorescent bulb in our pantry controlled by a metal pull chain. When I reach out for it, the static electric charge in my body is so strong that the bulb actually flickers before I pull the chain.

Yesterday, I got up from the couch to pop a movie out of the DVD player; about seven feet. In that distance, I managed to build up a charge so strong that touching the DVD player shocked it hard enough that it turned off. I thought it was fried. I had to hit the power switch several times before it would turn back on.

I’m waiting to see what other weird shit happens. Also, I’m sick of getting shocked every time I move.

Defective

February 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The functions of my body have ceased to make any sense to me at all.

I’ve been out of Tae Soo Do for the last two weeks due to (I believe) hyperextending my right knee during some kicking drills. It’s been hurting on and off the entire time, and I finally got sick of it enough that I wanted a doctor to take a look at it. Therefore, I went to Tae Soo Do today with explicit intention of causing enough damage to my knee for there to be something for the doctor to find and diagnose. Sound like a terrible idea? It’s not, really.

Typically, when I complain to a doctor that my X hurts on and off, and sometimes doing this makes it hurt, he or she will spend some time grunting and poking me with a stick, find nothing wrong, and charge me $100. I figured that actually having something wrong would give them a better idea how to fix me.

…but my knee feels fine. Totally fine. I don’t get it.

On the other hand, I actually managed to hurt myself stretching while lying in bed this morning. I did a good full-body sprawling stretch, and my ankle started to hurt. I had done something to a tendon, and it didn’t feel normal again until I popped it back into place.

So, to sum up: violent exercise on a wounded knee–perfectly fine. Lying in a comfy bed and stretching–pain.