My apologies to our readers. With the lovely wife’s trip to the emergency room last week and yesterday’s news, I have been well off my game. My wife’s brother, about 3-4 yrs older, was taken to the hospital on Sunday night and received a pacemaker today. He, and my 89 year old mother in law whom he now lives with are in the Lutheran homeland of North Dakota and we are so very far away.

I shall endeavor to do better.

Lovely wife went to emergency dept by ambulance yesterday afternoon. We found a mass behind her right knee that could have been a blood clot.

It was not, thank God.

It was a Baker’s Cyst. According to the online wisdom, it’s a sign from your body that your knee is damaged. Arthritis or ligament or cartilage damage.

The best part? Went to Unity / Parkridge Hospital. 2.5 hours start to finish. A couple of the visits at Strong Memorial, she hadn’t even seen a doc by that point.

Warm and friendly staff, clean and modern facility. Unity / Parkridge emergency department is highly recommended.

Holy Christ! I think she ripped my freakin arm off!

That said… Range of motion is much improved with exercises at home. Rotation is poorest, and will be the last to recover.

She led me on last week with baby exercises. Today I got to lay down and she “stretched” my shoulder.

Oh, mama! Now I know why everyone else who has had physical therapy hates their therapist. No pain, no gain. Lots of pain, well it hurts me but not the therapist.

Truthfully, she’s doing wonders and I’m a woos. If I can get my slider back, the Yankees will have me pitch a rehab stint in Columbus.

Or not.

My prescription for Celebrex is hung up in the insurance bureaucracy. I have to have prior approval before Walgreens will fill the Rx. Naturally, two faxes to the doctor were ignored so I had to call his office today. Oddly, no one knew anything about the communications from the pharmacy.

My first physical therapy visit today.

I really don’t bend like I’m supposed to. She did her measurements on my right arm’s range of motion, and… surprise, on my left’s when she discovered some limitations there.

I had 10 minutes of heat and then an ultrasound treatment. Then, some exercises to do at home. Twice a day for the next week. Not difficult at all, just very effective at demonstrating what I can’t do with that arm right now.

Oh, Lord. My right shoulder blade is out of position. It seems that the changes in motion caused by the pain have moved it farther right.

No pain so far from the work. I’ll return to PT in a week.

Here are the two most illustrative images from my MRI. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Comments from medical professionals are very welcome. I might have gotten some of the descriptions wrong.

The doctor says I have ths houlder of an 80 year old. And I ought to give it back.

I have MRI cuts to put up, probably tomorrow.

The first words out of his mouth when he looked at the computer screen where the MRI images were:

“Oh, that’s really ugly!”

Orthopods are the humorists of medicine. Really, the funniest docs I’ve ever met.

I had an MRI done of my right shoulder last evening.

I was, for some reason, extremely anxious. Probably because in the TV show “House“, bad things always happen in the MRI or CAT scan. The lovely wife came with and it was very reassuring.

Evening hours at the University of Rochester’s medical building in Brighton. Nice.

Remodelling, like they are all over that system. Not so nice in that the music for the MRI was down.

I got two golf tee shapped ear plugs and listened to a variety of loud pounding and slamming for twenty minutes. About five different sounds, two of which caused my insides to wiggle.

Yep, like “giving birth to an alien” wiggle.

I have to believe that improvements in this technology are on the way. The noise is something that should be addressed, quality of life issue. And, let’s face it. Which type of high tech equipment are you more likely to trust? One that purrs and hums? Or, one that sounds like a blacksmith’s shop in 1776?

The pain in my shoulder has not lessened. I saw the NP on Tuesday and the MRI was the result. I also have a prescription for Celebrex to pick up, since I did get three days of relief off a sample pack I had laying around.

I see the MD on Friday. I hope I can talk him into a nice color print of one of the MRI cuts. Kinda like a souvenier.