My cortizone injections.
- 1 May 2009 08:4020484I am sure the world at large is dying to catch up on the latest update on my near-crippled arm. There are thousands gathered outside Boland Towers awaiting this announcement.The media have gathered!! Yes some of you will remember me mentioning the near incapacity of my right arm recently. I simply just couldnt do this job at all, not without great difficulty. It all got much worse so that it was very difficult to use the arm at all. Eventually due to family pressure I went to a doctor who immediately sent me to the Clinic in Maison Dieu Rd for injections. Not instantly but appointments were made.
Yesterday I endured the second of those injections (as the first one didnt produce the desired effect)...a long injection right into the hard bit at the back of the shoulder. I now await the outcome of this second effort. It seems the cortizone acts like a crystal which eventually disperses over a three day period and should in theory anyway bring the arm back into play or bring some more life back into it. Thats the theory. That was the plan with the first one but the theory didnt deliver.
I met the lovely Jeanette Harper outside the clinic yesterday as I was leaving, she had nipped out for a smoke... and she said..."Hi Paul..Ive just typed up all your notes...you know you can only have three of those injections before they operate " aaaarrrgh thought I !!
But the moral of the story is this. make sure you have a good setup if you are going to spend a long time at the computer. make sure you dont ignore it if you start to get real pain, firstly in your wrist then further up the arm. make sure you get it seen to much earlier than me.
In the meantime Ive become quite good with my left arm. I can still play with my mouse all day now !
Ive had good service from the NHS.
I now wait to see if cortisone shot number two will work over the next period of time.email: dover7@msn.com - 1 May 2009 09:1820486Oooh Paul, I hope it has the desired effect. As someone else who spends a vast amount of her day in front of a computer, it is so important to have a decent chair and your desk at the right height for you. I also swear by those gel-filled wrist rests. Take regular breaks and stretch your arms, legs and neck. Hope you feel better soon.
- 1 May 2009 09:3820488Thank you, PaulB.
I'm not at all sure I want to know about your injections - I've gone quite light-headed just reading those couple of lines in your post!
But that's an important warning. If I don't like reading about the injections, far less do I want to face having them! I have problems also, in my tracker-ball arm and shoulder (heavens - the bionic woman has nothing on me - I have a tracker ball arm?? Ah, Lamarckian modification, the perils of spending too much time at the computer!).
Every day I'm working hours and hours on the computer with the Dover War Memorial Project. Time to change round the set up, very clearly.
I'm sorry you're having such problems, PaulB, and hope it will ease soon.The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk - 1 May 2009 09:5420493Snap!
yesterday they put one in my right foot to see how much better it gets - then I can have one in my left foot in a few weeks!
They put the left foot in...
I have had many of these and wasn't keen after the last one caused an abscess.
Just to let you know that when they work they are wonderful relief. Keep your pecker up! There's lots more fun left in you - 1 May 2009 10:3820502Well! Well! Well! Big Dave, I never knew that cortizone injections kept your pecker up, no wonder you're always smiling
lets hope it has the same effect on PaulB! 
- 1 May 2009 10:5220506PaulB
Will Boland Towers chimney bellow smoke to inform the crowd gathered that the injection is working or will it just be a right handed v sign from your balcony
Take care and I really hope your condition improves very soon.Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 1 May 2009 16:5520537Yes indeed Marek...white smoke means success but black smoke means we have to soldier on for some more. Only catholics will know what we're talking about here !!lol
Big Dave and Colette...well I never, Im shocked...the only thing stiff around here is my arm!!email: dover7@msn.com - 1 May 2009 17:3320538Ah yes the smoke, electing a new Pope!
- 2 May 2009 06:5920565Paul
Is what you have a form of RSI ?
I had this from continuous working on my PC/Laptop - almost all day and every day and the pain was excrutiating, it was bad in both elbows and started on the wrist areas too.
I know that not every one gets it and I didn't when I worked for Natwest on their computer operations for over 24 years.
Sometime last year, I thought I'd have to have my arm cut off as it was just so painful, but on a visit to Curiosity of Dover, in Cannon Street, talking to Jenny, the owner, she was telling me that her husband wears two, one on each wrist and he has no elbow/wrist joint pain now at all.
So I got one and within a day or two, magically the pain has gone and hasn't come back.
Maybe they don't work for everyone, maybe your pain is caused through something different, but for elbow/wrist joint pain, they are the cure and only around £5 or so.
I've no idea how they work, but they do - must be worth a try ?
Roger - 2 May 2009 07:3620570Ah Jeane yes youre right ..its the new Pope thingy isnt it
Roger yes thanks for that tip, its the copper bracelet you refer to there. For the moment though I think the horse has probably already bolted re the copper bracelet but if I ever get the arm back into a fully functioning position I would certainly apply that strategy. I just feel at the moment it would be too late and too much of an ask for the copper bracelet. But everyone else should consider it and I certainly will if I get back to where I once was. Its very hard to say if its RSI although I beleive it started that way. But now my right shoulder has frozen solid by ignoring the RSI. I have had to cancel participating at Wimbledon this year as my forearm smash isnt what it was !! I just cant get my balls over the net no more!!email: dover7@msn.com - 2 May 2009 08:1820574I can certainly empathize to a degree with Paul B. I have been having cortizone injections in the bone at the base of my big toe.
Sometimes I get relief from having it done and sometimes I don't. I am not a needle fan, so getting me there in the first place is a mission, but sometimes the pain is so bad I am happy to get the stuff
I suffered many years ago with Carpal tunnel syndrome, due to the job I was doing, which in the end needed surgery, so I can understand the kind of pain you must be in, but Boss I am not sure you have RSI because of your computer.
I think it is from constantly stirring your pot noodles - 2 May 2009 10:5820582Copper's also good for deterring slugs and snails. Very effective, I'm told.
Roger can you vouch? I;m sure you never have a moment's worry about a gastropod infestation on your elbows.The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk - 2 May 2009 16:3020586Sorry Paul - yes of course; reading my posting again, I can't believe that I wrote it without stating that it is/was a copper bracelet.
Maggie - I can vouch that these copper bracelets remove elbow and wrist pain and I have never suffered from a gastropod infestation of the elbow - the garden has, but not my elbow
Roger - 2 May 2009 19:1620589PaulB, sorry to hear about your shoulder that sounds really painful, I hope the cortizone sorts it out.
Maggie I had no idea about the copper and slugs, I have a big problem with slugs and snails in my garden so have just ordered some copper strips to put round all my plants. Thanks for that tip! - 4 May 2009 20:1320710I hope they work, Claire. I have slug problems in my garden also. just in a couple of places, and it's got worse since the neighbours put up a fence and blocked a couple of hedgehog runs.
Another tip someone gave to me was to crush up egg shells and put them around the plants that are worst affected. It seems that the slimeys can't quite cope with the sharp edges. It certainly worked on some herbs I had in pots, as long as the leaves weren't hanging over the edges (slugs, and snails especially, can be surprisingly long when they stretch and distinctly gymnastic in their abilities!)
I've just ask Simon to move all my work area around (which involved some very complicated unravelling of wires!). It feels a bit strange with things in different places, but I can feel the relief on my shoulder and neck already. For anyone with pain, I hope it eases soon, and without too many nasty injections.The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
4 May 2009 20:1720711maggie and co,try some good old fashiond soot for your slug and snail problem. - 4 May 2009 23:4120723Coo, nice one
It's a shame there's a lack of chimneys in our area here.
Completely off topic now - oh, the childhood memories. I used to get so excited when the chimneys were swept, and loved running up the garden waiting to see the brush pop out at the top.The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk