Satima's Blogspot: Back in the Mount

Sunday, 30 November 2008

Back in the Mount

Sunday, November 30, 2008 |

Posted by Satima Flavell

Mount Gambier, you will be pleased to know, is still here where I left it. So is my flat, which desperately needs a good clean but apart from wiping down the kitchen benches I've done little to change that, the main reason being that my shoulder is sore, and has been for several weeks. Make that months. In fact. I can't quite remember when it started to play up, but it must have been as early as June or July, maybe even earlier. Funny how aches and pains sneak up on one, remaining only half in consciousness until the body part concerned starts to scream for attention.

Well, it finally screamed loudly enough to make me take myself off to the doc. She sent me for a scan and an x-ray, which revealed that I had damaged the supraspinatus tendon in the left shoulder. Such a small piece of equipment to go wrong, yet the pain had reached something like seven or eight out of ten before I finally got it seen to. Not just the shoulder was hurting, but the entire left arm, with shooting pains down to the wrist and constant aches and jabs in the upper arm and elbow. Yoga became more and more difficult and finally I gave up on it, since I was doing the poses so badly I figured it wasn't doing me any good anyway. Doing my hair has taken on the nature of an Extreme Sport as I try to pin up my ever-recalcitrant locks while leaning over to the left to avoid raising the left arm overhead. The wretched arm simply will not lift more than about forty-five degrees in any direction: abduction beyond waist height is agony and putting it behind my back, almost impossible. A few millimetres out of the comfort zone are enough to bring on tears. Isn't it amazing how we don't appreciate the body until something goes wrong with it?

The worst part is that it could take as much as two years to get better and even then it's unlikely to recover its full range of movement. Surgery might help, but then again it might not: apparently they don't recommend it for older people save as a last resort. So I'm stuck with a frozen shoulder, perhaps for good, dammit. Oh well, it's the best excuse I've ever had for the avoidance of housework.

I've tried all my usual therapies, primarily Chiropractic and Bowen therapy, both of which I've found very helpful in the past. Not with this baby. The only thing that's brought a bit of relief is an electro-magnetic device that I've hired from a man in Perth at great expense - $10 a week! On a pension, that's almost as bad as a damaged arm! But it the little gizmo does seem to help, so I'm pathetically grateful for it. Mind you, it set off the alarm at the airport when I flew out from Perth and it took ages for security to decide whether or not I should be allowed on the plane with it. However, we reached Adelaide in almost record time so who knows? Maybe it helped the plane as well as my shoulder.

Anyhow, my shoulder and I are back in Mount Gambier, where, as expected, it is still cold and damp. I'm looking forward to warmer weather within a few weeks. Summer is the main tourist season, largely because of the famous Blue Lake. It's a lovely stretch of water nestled in an extinct volcano, and it turns the most glorious shade of cobalt blue from November to March each year. This photo was taken last year by my niece, Linda, who is a dab hand with a camera.

Nothing's happening on the writing front; maybe in a week or two when I've settled back here...Meantime,I take my hat off to all those enthusiasts who have done NaNoWriMo this year, and I lift it even higher (with my right arm, of course) to the ones who have done the required 50K words and in some cases even more. Noble souls, the lot of them!

Labels: alternative therapies, injuries, Mount Gambier

10 comments:

Jo said...: Sorry your shoulder has gotten so bad Satima, I had bursitis in my shoulder once and that was misery. Maybe the warm weather will help.

Was interested you mentioned Bowen, I am a great proponent for Bowen Therapy it did me the world of good and I have promoted it a lot in my blog (Let it Heal being the place I go).

Please explain exactly what NaNoWriMo is, so many seem involved but I am not totally clear what its about.; Sunday, November 30, 2008
Satima Flavell said...: Yes, Bowen therapy is wonderful, isn't it? I will continue to have it in order to keep the muscles around the damaged tendon as relaxed as possible. For soft tissue injuries, I find it even better than chiropractic. But it can't do much for actual tendon damage, apparently. Only time or surgery can fix that:-(

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - has been held every November for ten years now. Each time it rolls around, thousands of eager writers sign up to write fifty thousand words in a month. It's now an international movement, despite the name, and creates great cameradie among writers all over the world. Many of them do last the course and some write much more than the required 50K. (Some give up after a few days, of course, but they will often come back the following year to try again.) You can read about it on the web site at
http://www.nanowrimo.org/; Monday, December 01, 2008
Jo said...: Thanks for the info on NanNoWriMo I have come across it several times lately.

I think Bowen is a God send. Last year I had to walk with a cane, after a bunch of treatments of Bowen Therapy I haven't used a cane since last Christmas.

What, as a matter of interest, does it cost in Oz? We pay $60 Cdn. a session, not cheap.; Monday, December 01, 2008
Satima Flavell said...: The woman I see in Perth charges 50-something dollars for standard patients but as a pendsioner I only pay $45 and I get $24.50 of that back from my health fund. So it's not bad value. I doon't know what they chage here in Mount Gambier - I've yet to see anyone here.; Monday, December 01, 2008
Jo said...: I don't get a discount for being a pensioner and I don't get anything back from my insurance either unless I go to a licensed Naturopath doctor who practices Bowen. He would change me around $120 or so and what I would get back would mean I was paying more in the end anyway. Can't win.; Monday, December 01, 2008
Satima Flavell said...: Mm - sounds as if your system is like our used to be, five or so years back. Now all the health funds are paying out on at least some "alternative" therapies as long as the practitioner is qualified in that modality and has a provider number. I'm sure your practitioners will be agitating for change. Once one fund starts paying out, the others with follow because they'll lose customers otherwise. At least, that's what happened here.; Monday, December 01, 2008
Jo said...: I can't remember if you have social medicine in Oz - senior moment again. Our insurance is supplemental and part of Matt's employment benefits which carry over even though he is retired, thank goodness. They do pay a lot of stuff, but Bowen is very new in this country, so they don't pay much.; Monday, December 01, 2008
Satima Flavell said...: Yes, there is a government scheme but it's complex and not even truly adequate. People who can afford it buy private insurance that will get them a private room in hospital and their own choice of doctor / surgeon. That's way beyond my means, but I buy what's called ancilliary cover, which covers the greater part of stuff like dentistry, optometry and alternative practitioners such as Bowen, which of course, started in Australia and has established itself here fairly quickly due to Bowen's own students having formed an organisation that lobbied for recognition.; Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Jo said...: Pity something like that couldn't happen here. The guys I went to who practice the therapy were all good and well qualified, just not doctors. They certainly did me a lot of good as well as friends of mine. I have sent lots of people to them.; Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Satima Flavell said...: I think that's the way change happens. When enough people start agitating for their favourite therapies to be rebatable, it will happen.; Tuesday, December 02, 2008

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