Shoulder Update - Not Looking Great

It's been a while since I wrote about my shoulder, which I dislocated on Dec. 11, 2009. You would think by now, it would have been healed and history, but unfortunately it hasn't healed and it's not history.

After attending weekly (yes, every week) physiotherapy sessions, the pain in the shoulder decreased a lot, range of motion increase quite a bit, but there is still pain and there is still not complete return of use. So, the orthopedic surgeon sent me for magnetic resonance imaging (an MRI) with contrast.

The contrast was intra-articular, which means the doctor injected the contrast right into my shoulder. The needle is inserted sort of between the shoulder and the collar bone. To say it hurt is an understatement. It felt as if I had dislocated it all over again and I don't do well with pain like that. I was expecting an IV contrast. Ouch. But, it had to be done (just don't ever ask me to do that again!).

The results of the MRI are not encouraging so I'm waiting to see if surgery is in the picture.

"sequela of anterior shoulder dislocation with an old mild Hill-Sachs fracture and tear of anterioinferior apspect of labrum with focal post traumatic chondropathy of anterioinferior aspect of labrum (GLAD injury)."

That's a fancy way of saying, "oops, her shoulder is messed up." The Hill-Sachs fracture is a type of break that very typically happens with an anterior shoulder dislocation, as I had. But I'm not sure if they mean "old" as in from December, or "old" as in a previous injury I sustained about 15 or 16 years ago.

It does sound like surgery is the next step, but we'll find out next week for sure.

So, I leave you with these words of advice: DON'T FALL! Especially on moving day (Diary of My Separated Shoulder)

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