My boo-boo shoulder

Around the first week of October '08 Dave and I were almost in a car accident. The SUV in front of us slammed on its breaks and Dave had to slam on his breaks and jerk the wheel to the right, which landing us in the grass on the side of the road, but he successfully avoided hitting the SUV. This caused the seat belt to lock up hard on my right shoulder, holding it back while the rest of me was thrown forward and to the left. Ever since then I've had shoulder pain.

It was bad at first but I figured it was bruised or I'd pulled a muscle so I thought I'd give it a few weeks to heal. All of a sudden Thanksgiving was upon us, then Dave's heart surgery, and six months had flown past before I knew it. My shoulder is about 75% better than it was immediately after the seat belt incident, but still not back to normal. So it was time to see a doctor.

My family physician said he thought I'd torn my rotator cuff so he sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. I've never been to one before and was terrified he'd tell me I need surgery.

I saw him this morning and after a series of x-rays and shoulder manipulations the OS came to the conclusion that my rotator cuff got *squished between my shoulder bones* and the muscles **got all out of whack** and that physical therapy alone should fix it. I'm supposed to go to therapy 3 times a week for 4 weeks and then go back to see him. He wants to start with therapy and then add cortisone shots if I need them. But he doesn't think I'll need surgery, which makes me a very happy camper. So hooray for my awesome new orthopedic surgeon! (And he's cute, too!)

* and ** denote technical terms