It's Always Something...

I've been having a fair bit of pain in my right shoulder for about a month, probably longer. Greg and I keep telling the girls they are just growing too big for Mommy to keep picking up, and I've altered the way I do just about everything around here, from putting on my socks to driving to carrying groceries... it's gotten pretty inconvenient to say the least. At first, we assumed I had slept on it wrong. Then I suggested that I probably have that pain because I carry all my stress in my shoulders and neck. It was really a never-ending speculation festival.

Just this week, I finally recognized the pain. In college, twenty years ago(!!!?) and only a week apart, both my shoulders suffered separations and dislocations during soccer games. Ironically, both of those games were at a stadium in St. Louis. (Cue the eerie, creepy music.)

At the time, our athletic trainer told me I'd need to have surgery if I wanted to continue playing competitively. I was only 19 and thought I could give up soccer so I opted not to have the surgery(s). I hit the physical therapy pretty hard and ended up with no adverse effects, other than the unique party trick of being able to pop my shoulders in and out of socket at will. I even went back to playing soccer regularly about six years after my injuries (currently playing three nights a week), and never had any problem, until now....

So, even though this pain felt vaguely familiar, I was truly hoping that indeed I was just falling apart, another popular hypothesis with our crowd.

Today, I got a much more official speculation from the doctor. She referred me to the orthopedic surgeon who I will see tomorrow hopefully. Two words uttered today that I really hoped I'd never hear in relation to my own medical care were "rotator cuff".

I'm gonna need to get tougher.