One thing you should know about me, is that I am a WUSS when it comes to pain.
I tend to over-exaggerate any and all my aches and pains. Mainly to those closest to me, but occasionally I will milk it with others (I mean, why not?).
And this isn’t something I discovered as an adult. Oh no! I started at a very young age! From needing a “cold rag” for ANY symptom, to trying to leave school early (until my mom caught onto that plan), I would ride out any pain for as long as I could get attention. I even recall my first grade teacher asking me one day, “Jennifer, does your hair ever hurt?” to which I replied “You know, I don’t think it has…yet”. (Just to note, my hair has hurt…especially after a migraine.)
Anyway….for the last 4 weeks, I have been dealing with a pain.
No, it’s not any of my kids…although that would be faster resolved-haha!
It’s a pain in my right arm, which I discovered is in the Deltoid muscle. I had already been to urgent care 1 week after the pain started and they loaded me up on meds and a Steroid pack. It subsided the pain and so I thought we were all good. NOT!
Last week the pain flared up again. It had been hurting for a few days, but I was trying to convince myself I was being a Wuss…until I received a birthday present I couldn’t even lift out of the box!
Now you might be thinking that must’ve been really heavy, so I have included a picture…
SIDE NOTE: There are a few things you need to know about this picture… 1-It’s the PERFECT gift for me, because if you follow me on any social media outlet, you know that I make this for my dinner at least 3x per week (just ate it tonight, as a matter of fact). 2-The person who bought this is GENIUS and is one of my employees (very thoughtful). 3-It’s not even heavy, yet when I went to pick it up, I dropped it with my right hand because I couldn’t even lift it! After that, I decided I had better call the doctor.
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I enter the doctor’s office and immediately start to panic a bit. The person in front of me is getting questions on whether they really had an appointment set up. “Are you sure you have an appointment for today? Did you get a reminder call?” asked the receptionist.
My mind starts racing. “OH CRAP”…I didn’t get a reminder call. What if I’ve left work and I don’t even have an appointment. Am I sure I scheduled it for today? Maybe it was a different day and I put it in my calendar wrong. (A women’s mind is like Talladega Superspeedway)
“NEXT” hollers the receptionist.
I snap myself back to reality to give her my name and WHEW…I do have an appointment. Disaster avoided.
I get called back by the nurse and we exchange small niceties, as she’s weighing me…which turns out, their scale is about 5 lbs off from mine…to the bad, so naturally I had to correct her!
When the Doctor comes in, we begin to discus the purpose of my visit. After getting him up-to-speed, he begins having me do different movements to zero in on pain area.
I need to remind you…I AM A WUSS!
So, since I have clearly been “babying” my arm, all these movements start to stir up the pain…combine that with the doctor starting to “push” into the muscle, and I was like “OWWWWWWW”. To give you an idea, this kind of pain is a mix of…I feel like I’m going to vomit or cry, not sure which way it will go quite yet.
The doctor steps out for a minute to get one of his med books and as he begins to read to me all the things that could be wrong, I start to think: This little room is getting pretty hot. And my arm is really hurting. And I’m feeling a littel flushed. And hey, there’s a mirror, and I’m also looking a little flushed. Am I going to pass out? (…remember, Talladega Superspeedway).
“Excuse me Doctor, I’m going to have to wet a peper towel because I’m feeling kinda sick.” He immediately helps me lay down on the examining table. Once he makes sure I’m okay, he looks at me and says, “you delivered 1 baby and had 2 C-Sections…how in the world are you passing out over this pain?” to which I replied, “I almost passed out with all 3 of them just getting the IV!”
After we laugh for a bit, he suggests a shot. “WHAT!?! A Shot! I mean I almost passed out and you hadn’t even mentioned a needle! Now you want to give me a shot!” He begins to negotiate with me and I finally agree (mainly due to the pain level), with the conditions that he re-wets my cold towel and I could continue to occupy the room until I was sure I was okay. (Don’t judge me…I also passed out driving once…and Not because of alcohol!)
And to make matters worse, I didn’t even leave with a “diagnosis” …I will need to go see an Orthopaedic doctor next week. Let’s just hope that appointment is less eventful.
Needless to say I HAD to get a coke after this whole episode!
Jennifer R Salveson 