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Week 7 Blog Post11/12/2023 This week I had physical therapy again two times a week Monday and Wednesday. On Monday I still was not allowed to do anything with my shoulder. It still had a guard presented and was super stiff. I had to continue to get my shoulder massaged and stretched throughout this appointment because everything else hurt too bad. However, on Tuesday I went to hangout with my aunt and she has a bemer machine. A bemer is an e-stem device that stimulates and increases blood flow to muscles to increase performance and recovery. It also takes away inflammation and swelling but stabilizes the tendons and tightens them back up. This is exactly what my shoulder needed. I needed that sac of fluid to release, inflammation to decrease, and my tendons to tighten back up to where they are supposed to be located at. My aunt said that the bemer helps her knee to feel better after she does a session of the therapy. After hearing all that it was supposed to do and how it helped her I thought I’d give it a try because at this point even my physical therapist said that my shoulder couldn’t become any worse than it already was. I thought that if the bemer helped that would be good but if it didn’t that would’ve been what I expected because nothing else so far had seemed to help at all. After the 20 minute session of having the bemer on I took it off and my shoulder popped. It was a good pop though and after it popped I had a complete full range of motion with no grinding or rubbing feeling in my shoulder. My shoulder almost instantly stopped hurting. I went home that night and was finally able to completely sleep through the night without waking up in pain for the first time in two weeks. I even woke up the next morning feeling good. My shoulder didn’t have to pop first thing in the morning for me to get my range of motion but I just woke up having it and without pain. I went to therapy that afternoon since it was now Wednesday when I woke up and the therapist was completely shocked with everything that I was able to do without pain. He said that the sac of fluid that was in my shoulder had shrunk by three times the original size it was. They were able to press on my shoulder for the first time and I was allowed to do rehab since I was finally able to do exercises. The therapist had to change his whole plan for the appointment because he thought that I would still be in as bad shape Wednesday as I was Monday. We didn’t add any weights to the exercises this week because he didn’t want to do too much to push it to its limits to where we go backwards rather than continuing to progress. We hope to start getting into more physical workouts next week with weights rather than just simple exercises. However, this week was a major milestone to my recovery and I’m very thankful for that. For once I’m actually excited about going to physical therapy next week and seeing what happens with my shoulder with a full week of actual therapy.
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Week 6 Blog Post11/5/2023 This week was the week that I started physical therapy again. I went Monday and my shoulder was really bad and sensitive to everything. I could barely move it and had limited range of motion. I couldn’t do any of the exercises they tried to get me to do. All that we ended up doing that day was icing my shoulder and massaging it. After the appointment on Monday they told me that my shoulder was super bad and because of its condition they wanted to start seeing me two times a week. After I got done with physical therapy I went to rise to check in with my volleyball team. It was the first practice of the season and I didn’t want to leave her without an explanation of my absence. I told my coach about the history of my shoulder and everything that has happened. I told her how the physical therapist didn’t have an idea on how long I would be out yet. They just told me that I have to get over the initial pain, swelling, and inflammation stage of my injury before they can give me an idea of how long I’m going to be out. They have to wait for that stage to be over because once that stage is over I can start doing exercise for my shoulder. Once my shoulder actually allows for me to do those exercises the physical therapist will be able to further examine the strength of my shoulder and what the actual problem is within it. Once they find the actual problem that’ll tell them how long I will be out.Whenever I went back Wednesday my shoulder was in more pain than it was the appointment before. They said this was because of them messing with it that became inflamed. I had less movement and mobility on wednesday than I did before. This was a very bad appointment and it didn’t matter what I did my shoulder was hurting constantly. It felt like my shoulder had a heartbeat of just pain. They ended up finding a sac of fluid in my shoulder and they spent the rest of the appointment trying to massage the fluid out. At the end of the appointment I iced my shoulder and was told not to put anymore heat on it. Heat could cause temporarily satisfaction but in the long term it’s only going to do more damage. I was instructed not to do anything else involving my shoulder for the rest of the week except to ice it. I schedule my appointments for next week for Monday and Wednesday again. My physical therapist gave me simple exercises to try and do as tolerated but he didn’t know if I’d be able to do them at all. Which I did not end up doing because of the amount of pain I’ve been in.
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Week 5 Blog Post10/29/2023 This week I went back to see Dr. Shugart. We went and I told her everything about what happened at the tournament. She examined my shoulder again and said that it was inflamed but she didn’t think that an additional injury had occurred. She prescribed me to go to physical therapy with Kevin at “Aware Physical Therapy.” Nothing else happened for the rest of the week. I wasn’t allowed to do anything with my shoulder because they thought that I would end up damaging it worse. I continued my week as normal as possible but was in a lot of pain throughout the week. I was taking as much medication as possible, I iced my shoulder, and I heated my shoulder. I was supposed to have another tournament this coming weekend but again I was now written out of all sports. Back to exactly where I started. This was very hard. I don’t understand how I finished my whole entire volleyball season and then as soon as I started playing softball again all the problems and pain came back. A big concern of Dr. Shugart and Kevin the physical trainer were with how I threw in softball. They wanted to eventually test and compare my volleyball swing to my softball throw. Another concern of theirs was because softball is outside which means it’s a lot colder and weather will affect my shoulder. The cold will cause the tendonitis to flare up and become “defensive.” When it is “defensive”, my shoulder tenses up not allowing me to have full range of motion so that I don’t injure other aspects of my shoulder more. It puts up a guard within my shoulder of not allowing the muscles, bones, and ligaments to rub together when I throw. However, because of that guard not allowing those things to rub together I physically can’t throw the ball but so far. The inflammation and tendonitis in my shoulder has caused all of those aspects to be on top of each other or rubbing against each other with any movement in my shoulder. If that guard keeps that rubbing from happening but in order to throw that rubbing has to happen then I won’t be allowed to or I’ll have a very short throwing distance. If all of their concerns about my shoulder revolve around softball they don’t know if I’m going to be allowed to play softball again. Only time will tell with that but they just wanted me to know every possibility. Even if I’m allowed to play softball again they fully believe that I shouldn’t play two sports at the same time anymore.
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Week 4 Blog Post10/22/2023 This week was what I thought was going to be a normal week. I finished playing my volleyball season at 100% without any problems. I rested my shoulder for the rest of the week after finishing the season. I went to the tournament this weekend and before I started playing it was completely fine. I did my rehab on my shoulder, put icy hot on it and biofreeze. I even took tylenol before the game. However, none of it seemed to help once I started throwing. After the first throw my shoulder popped. My shoulder continued to pop with every single ball I threw after the first initial throw. It was never a serve pop but one that was uncomfortable and that felt weird. It didn’t hurt my shoulder but it made me feel sore. I had full ROM but again it was a sore feeling so it felt like my shoulder was stretching or tight every time I tried moving it. I continued to play through the soreness and got through the first day of the tournament. I had a little trouble sleeping that night because my shoulder was sore so it was uncomfortable to lay on it. I woke up the next morning in pain. My shoulder was very stiff whenever I first woke up and I could barely move it. It wasn’t until I heated my shoulder with a heating pad and it popped then I got my full range of motion back that morning. I tried playing that morning even though my shoulder was in pain. It didn’t work too well for me. I tried throwing a ball from the outfield and my shoulder severely popped. It instantly brought tears into my eyes and after that I couldn’t throw a ball to save my life. Even at a short distance it hurt and I felt like it was impossible to actually get the ball in the air from one location to the other. I stopped playing for the rest of the day and was in so much pain just sitting in the dugout that I went home from the tournament early.
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Week 3 Blog Post10/15/2023 This week I went to get my MRI done. For the MRI I had to wear a specific type of scrub that was open at my right shoulder. Once the scrub was put on and I was laying on the table waiting for the doctor to come in to do the injection. Since they were expecting a labrum tear as one of the possibilities they had to inject contrast dye into my shoulder. The labrum in your shoulder is hidden by other muscles and ligaments making it invisible. They injected the dye into my shoulder so that they would be able to see the labrum even though it is hidden. The nurse had already prepared my shoulder for the injection by cleaning it and putting a disinfectant pad with a circle cut out in the middle over my shoulder. The doctor could touch any place on that pad besides where the circle was and my skin was showing. This was to prevent an infection from happening. The doctor had just enough room in the circle to add the injection but still not have to touch my actual skin. They had me lay in an anatomical position on the table. This means that I was laying flat on my back with the palms of my hands facing towards the sky. They put a weighted bag on top of my right hand to keep me from moving it while the doctor did the injection. It took the doctor a few times to find the right spot of where to add the injection at. Once he found the spot he inserted the dye. It felt like my shoulder was being pumped up like a helium balloon. It felt like my shoulder was swollen and puffy even though it wasn't. The dye ran all the way down my arm into my elbow and hand. It made my whole right arm have a tingly sensation that eventually numbed the whole arm. Once the doctor was done inserting the correct amount of dye the nurse came back into the room to help me sit up from the table because the dye could’ve made me nauseous. I went straight to the MRI room after getting the insertion so that they dye would be well visible throughout the scanning. I got done with my MRI and went back to the school to support the volleyball team for their game. My shoulder was in severe pain throughout the whole game from being touched so much at the doctors while being cleaned and maneuvered. The MRI results came back the next day and I went to see Shugart again to read the scan. Everything came back good. No tears in my labrum or in my rotator cuff. However, I did have tissue damage in my shoulder, inflammation and fluid in my shoulder, and extreme bicep tendonitis. I got cleared to go back to playing volleyball but only back row for the rest of the week in hopes to be back 100% the start of next week. I started physical therapy with Anothy this week and went everyday before practice. I also continued to ice my shoulder everyday after practice. My shoulder gave me no problems for the rest of the week and while playing back row for volleyball. I have to go to see Anothy tomorrow before practice for my normal physical therapy but after we get done he’s coming into the gym with me to monitor my first few swings back to playing front row to make sure I’m okay and not babying my shoulder. I’m not allowed to do anything softball related until volleyball season is over.
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Week 2 Blog Post10/8/2023 This week I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Shugart at Novant Health. Before this appointment my shoulder was just going through the normal amount of pain with a consistent throbbing feeling. Once she started messing with my shoulder it became super inflamed and aggravated. During the appointment I did not have a full range of motion but only a small percent. My shoulder was super tight while trying to move in certain directions which didn’t allow me to move it much. It was also super weak when it did allow me to finally move it. I couldn’t hold many of the flexibility tests because after just a few seconds my whole arm would shake and my shoulder would give out. If I could actually hold it in one position when she grabbed or pushed on my arm to add weight my shoulder would give out again. At one point in the appointment she told me to sit up straight while she looked at my back. My right shoulder was so inflamed that it was visibly more swollen than the left. My right shoulder was squishy from tissue damage and fluid in my shoulder. I had to take X-rays during this appointment so that I would be able to get an MRI scheduled. Shugart wrote me out of volleyball and all other physical activities until I got the MRI results back. A lot of things were up in the air about what I did but they thought it was a torn rotator cuff or a torn labrum. At this point they already knew that it was extreme bicep tendonitis with inflammation and tissue damage. That was all they were hoping for because in this case even though it isn’t perfect it’s still the best case. This week I was instructed to take aleve during both the morning and at night to decrease the inflammation. For the rest of the week I went to see Anothy in the trainer's room right before practice everyday to ice and or heat my shoulder. Anothy didn’t want to start any physical therapy on my shoulder until my MRI was done so that my shoulder could deflame as much as possible. Inflammation in my shoulder would cause the image to be blurry. So again we didn’t do any PT this week to get a more clear result from the MRI. We have my MRI scheduled for next Tuesday and until then it’s just a waiting game. I went about the rest of my week after the doctor's appointment as normal as possible.
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Week 1 Project Pitch9/27/2023 My project is going to be based on my road to recovery from an injury. I will record the progress through rest, physical therapy, and once I get back to playing again. I want to complete this project because I want to be able to have fun in my sports again by being able to play and not be in pain while playing anymore. My motivation is to be able to have the relief of just playing again. Not having to worry about protecting myself while still trying to play good. Throughout the days I will track how my shoulder feels and the progress of it. I will also take count of how strong I feel within the days and even if my pain levels are not high. Then track if I feel like I could do everything how I used to do before getting injured. I will keep records and descriptions of everything done in physical therapy. Adding if I could do everything required without a problem or not. Once I gradually start back participating in sports I will record what I feel during and after practice and the maintenance required to continue feeling good. The indication of success for this project will be progress in the right direction of not being in pain anymore. Overall the perfect outcome would be able to play games, go through practice, and even tournaments without pain ever occurring. However, this recovery might take awhile depending if I need surgery or not, success in this situation could look like many different things. I will count it to be any progress in the right direction of being in less pain than I was the day before.
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