COUNTDOWN ~ "Mouse" Injury

DAY 348

Feeling a little discouraged and probably a little sorry for myself as I was no further ahead this week than the same time last week. I opted to go for a cortisone shot, last week, in my shoulder as prescribed by my family Doctor. This only after an x-ray and ultrasound to discover the damage and subsequent physiotherapy. The shoulder pain was such that the injection felt like a mere mosquito bite when it should have felt like a nasty bee sting. It went from there to not being able to raise my arm no more than elbow height for the next two days. I gradually returned to where I was before I went for the shot. What went wrong, why was this not helping? I spoke with my Physiotherapist today and she said it was 50/50...sometimes it works for an individual and sometimes it doesn't. Surprisingly this made me feel less down in the mouth and slightly more determined to make physiotherapy work for me with adjustments and strengthening exercises. It took a while for the shoulder to get where it needed physiotherapy (repetitive movement strain injury) or as I affectionately refer to it as my "mouse injury", so it will take time to recover.

Trivia:
Cortisone is a type of steroid that is produced naturally by a gland in your body called the adrenal gland. Cortisol is released from the adrenal gland when your body is under stress. Natural cortisone is released into the blood stream and is relatively short-acting.

Injectable cortisone is synthetically produced and has many different trade names (e.g. Celestone, Kenalog, etc.), but is a close derivative of your body's own product. The most significant differences are that synthetic cortisone is not injected into the blood stream, but into a particular area of inflammation. Also, the synthetic cortisone is designed to act more potently and for a longer period of time (days instead of minutes).