...Clemens, that is.
Maybe I should plan to stay in my hole a bit longer due to the potential for roid rage after my visit with the ortho today. I got lots of steroids.
I have been having trouble with my right shoulder blade off and on for as long as I have been biking. This year though the pain has been much worse and has not gotten better with more miles as it has in past seasons. To give you an idea, it feels like someone is sticking a knife into my back/shoudler and then turning it, over and over again. I have had my bike fit worked on throughout the past ~2 months and that still has not helped. Jon saw me moving my arm around one day and said "ah, I think I know what your problem is"- as in the problem is definitely me, not my bike fit. My right shoulder blade does not track right, or the muscles are not developed/working properly. Here is a general idea of what is probably going on (bursitis), although I don't have the crepitus part, at least I hope not.
I can tell you exactly which rides this year really got to me and which ones were not as bad, but last weekend was probably one of the worst ones all season, which is what got me to finally do something about it. Jon had given me exercises to do to help strengthen the postural muscles, which I have been doing (albeit not frequently enough), but it had become obvious that the inflammation was not going anywhere. I did not ride my bike at all during the week last week, so my shoulder had had 6 days of rest from being in aero or up on the handlebars (I still cannot tell which position makes it worse). Less than an hour into the ride on Saturday the pain was awful. I did spend a lot of that hour up out of aero navigating some pretty rough road and packs of riders, so maybe the vibration or tension caused it to worsen, but I do not know for sure yet, and I cannot be certain that it will not happen at CDA. All I do know is that if that pain were to come on one hour into a seven plus hour ride at CDA I would be done for. I was almost in tears at several points during the ride on Saturday as nothing I did made it better. I stopped and stretched three times in a whopping 70 mile ride. I have also learned that lidocaine patches and aleve both do not make a dent in the pain. It gets to where the pain shoots up my neck and down my back, and I'm going to fall off my bike before too long trying to stretch it out while riding.
The odd thing is that the pain goes away almost immediately after I get off the bike and never bothers me swimming. I can feel the area a bit during the rest of the day after a ride, but it is never acute pain, just generalized pain in the area. I had the area massaged back in April and it hurt nonstop for the next three days after that so I have not had it worked on since. It may have been better after the initial three days, but I have not been knocking down the door to have it hurt around the clock again.
My ortho said it could make sense that it is right-side pain because I am left handed and there is a good probability my left side is stronger leaving the poor little right side to fend for itself. Anyways, the ex-collegiate football player that my ortho is decided to treat it "very aggressively." Thank goodness for athletes with a medical license. He gave me a cortisone shot, a steroid dose pack, and nsaid patches. If that does not work then I do not know what will.
The only problem is right now I feel basically paralyzed. He injected lidocaine before the cortisone, so the shot itself did not hurt and did not hurt by the time I walked out of the office, and he seemed surprised. I said it may be another story by the time I swim tonight and they said the lidocaine would wear off in 6-7 hours and I said "perfect, my swim starts in 6 hours...ugh." I did not know why he seemed surprised that so far the injection area was not bothering me...until I got to my car. Wow. Add me to the injured reserved list for now as typing is even causing me pain. I doubt I will be able to swim tonight and do not think biking is the best idea either. Running might work, but I will have to see. The good thing is this is an okay time to be missing workouts and I'm not really freaking out about it. I also know the pain will go away in a day or two so I just have to stick it out for now and then things will be much better. I think he got the shot in the right place because when I'm moving around now the pain radiates up my neck and down my back just like when I am riding. Awesome. I am actually laughing about all of it right now and about how silly I must look walking down the hall at work with my arm bent across my body, not moving. And we do this to ourselves...sometimes we as triathletes probably do not look very smart...oh well, I'm just doing my part to stimulate the medical economy...it needs help too, right?
Maybe I should plan to stay in my hole a bit longer due to the potential for roid rage after my visit with the ortho today. I got lots of steroids.
I have been having trouble with my right shoulder blade off and on for as long as I have been biking. This year though the pain has been much worse and has not gotten better with more miles as it has in past seasons. To give you an idea, it feels like someone is sticking a knife into my back/shoudler and then turning it, over and over again. I have had my bike fit worked on throughout the past ~2 months and that still has not helped. Jon saw me moving my arm around one day and said "ah, I think I know what your problem is"- as in the problem is definitely me, not my bike fit. My right shoulder blade does not track right, or the muscles are not developed/working properly. Here is a general idea of what is probably going on (bursitis), although I don't have the crepitus part, at least I hope not.
I can tell you exactly which rides this year really got to me and which ones were not as bad, but last weekend was probably one of the worst ones all season, which is what got me to finally do something about it. Jon had given me exercises to do to help strengthen the postural muscles, which I have been doing (albeit not frequently enough), but it had become obvious that the inflammation was not going anywhere. I did not ride my bike at all during the week last week, so my shoulder had had 6 days of rest from being in aero or up on the handlebars (I still cannot tell which position makes it worse). Less than an hour into the ride on Saturday the pain was awful. I did spend a lot of that hour up out of aero navigating some pretty rough road and packs of riders, so maybe the vibration or tension caused it to worsen, but I do not know for sure yet, and I cannot be certain that it will not happen at CDA. All I do know is that if that pain were to come on one hour into a seven plus hour ride at CDA I would be done for. I was almost in tears at several points during the ride on Saturday as nothing I did made it better. I stopped and stretched three times in a whopping 70 mile ride. I have also learned that lidocaine patches and aleve both do not make a dent in the pain. It gets to where the pain shoots up my neck and down my back, and I'm going to fall off my bike before too long trying to stretch it out while riding.
The odd thing is that the pain goes away almost immediately after I get off the bike and never bothers me swimming. I can feel the area a bit during the rest of the day after a ride, but it is never acute pain, just generalized pain in the area. I had the area massaged back in April and it hurt nonstop for the next three days after that so I have not had it worked on since. It may have been better after the initial three days, but I have not been knocking down the door to have it hurt around the clock again.
My ortho said it could make sense that it is right-side pain because I am left handed and there is a good probability my left side is stronger leaving the poor little right side to fend for itself. Anyways, the ex-collegiate football player that my ortho is decided to treat it "very aggressively." Thank goodness for athletes with a medical license. He gave me a cortisone shot, a steroid dose pack, and nsaid patches. If that does not work then I do not know what will.
The only problem is right now I feel basically paralyzed. He injected lidocaine before the cortisone, so the shot itself did not hurt and did not hurt by the time I walked out of the office, and he seemed surprised. I said it may be another story by the time I swim tonight and they said the lidocaine would wear off in 6-7 hours and I said "perfect, my swim starts in 6 hours...ugh." I did not know why he seemed surprised that so far the injection area was not bothering me...until I got to my car. Wow. Add me to the injured reserved list for now as typing is even causing me pain. I doubt I will be able to swim tonight and do not think biking is the best idea either. Running might work, but I will have to see. The good thing is this is an okay time to be missing workouts and I'm not really freaking out about it. I also know the pain will go away in a day or two so I just have to stick it out for now and then things will be much better. I think he got the shot in the right place because when I'm moving around now the pain radiates up my neck and down my back just like when I am riding. Awesome. I am actually laughing about all of it right now and about how silly I must look walking down the hall at work with my arm bent across my body, not moving. And we do this to ourselves...sometimes we as triathletes probably do not look very smart...oh well, I'm just doing my part to stimulate the medical economy...it needs help too, right?
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