I’ll be thankful for this again.

Today, I’d like to suggest something for which you all should be thankful.  Just at the moment, it’s out of my reach—literally.

Working shoulders.

It’s nice if you can take them for granted.

Your shoulders are sort of amazing, providing all kinds of mobility and all kinds of stabilizing strength.  As such, they tend to attract problems other joints don’t seem to have.

And that’s when you stop being able to take them for granted.

A couple of months ago, I started to have serious and sudden pain in my right shoulder whenever I moved it in certain ways.  Drop-to-your-knees-and-howl kind of pain.

I thought, at first, that it would pass.  Rest a bit.  Stop working so hard in the yard.  Take it easy.

It didn’t pass.

So, I went to a sports doctor.  Got X-rays.  Got a cortisone shot.  Let’s be thankful for cortisone shots—even though this one’s effect was not as miraculous as I had hoped after various relatives’ stories of bursitis treatment.  The efficacy of the cortisone shot for me was compromised by the fact that I don’t have bursitis.

I have adhesive capsulitis.

Otherwise known as “frozen shoulder.”

I’d never heard of it before—and I am here to tell you if I never heard of it again, it would be too soon for me.

The good news is it is known as a self-limiting condition.  Supposedly, it will eventually wear off and I’ll regain most of my shoulder’s mobility.

Supposedly.

Meanwhile, I go to physical therapy a couple of times a week and do exercises on my own every day. I have a new appreciation for medieval torture chambers—because this hurts.  A lot.  In a way that mere words cannot describe.

However, I am thankful for the physical therapist who is able to ignore my gritted teeth, whimpers and occasional quiet screams as she works on my shoulder.  I dread going, but I think it’s helpful.

And I’m thankful for the insurance that picks up most—although not all—of the cost of this.  I’m spending a fortune in co-payments, and I shudder to think what the bill would be if I didn’t have insurance.

Mostly, I’m thankful for the years when both my shoulders worked well.

And I think you should take a minute and be thankful for yours!