Hi, James! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

I had been pushing my physical limits for some time...
but until the pain settled in I didn't consciously add
everything up. Seems to me you know when you're overdoing
it. I'll know better in future (maybe). :-)

Good luck with that! <L>

Thanks... I may need it! Digging down to the next layer, as NT's are
wont to do, I recognize that I come from a long line of people whose philosophy
Elizabeth the Queen Mother explained quite succinctly (IIRC) as "You just carry
on." She carried on, in reasonably good health, for more than a hundred years.
My family didn't quite match her record, but they defied the odds as well. One
of the ideas I've been working on is figuring out what they did right. Another
is learning to acknowledge what my body is trying to tell me. If it hurts when
I try to do such-and-such, maybe I need to back off for the time being.... :-)

Did you - in retrospect - see signs that you should
slow down with the rotating at the cuff, or did you
just wake up with it?

Yes, on both counts. I did receive a few warning signals. I ignored
them because they seemed to be temporary. That's what I'd been taught to do...
but then, as I said, the pain "settled in". I woke up one morning when we were
getting ready for a camping trip & expressed some concern over the packing etc.
which had to be completed within forty-eight hours. Dallas understood what was
involved & suggested we postpone the trip. In retrospect I'm quite glad we did
because otherwise we'd have been away when the pain hit its peak... [wry grin].

As you know, I have such a nerve deficit from surgical
damage, it took me forever to recognize my boundaries,
and another eternity before I *started* to respect them.
I still often need to cue into secondary symptoms to
realize that damage has occurred, and those often show up
days later, so....

I don't completely understand your problem, but I understand that you
may be receiving confused signals from the nerves. FWIW I also understand that
the "no pain -- no gain" theory has beeen disputed in professional circles. It
seems to me that if you have a problem which is rather unusual you must rely on
your own intuition. So you're bucking the tide? SURVIVORS often do that. ;-)

Seriously, this isn't the first time it has given you
trouble, right?

You're thinking of the other shoulder... [wry grin].

I trust you'll forgive my ignorance? <chuckle>

Of course. You tolerate mine in good spirit.... :-)

<EG> Seriously, I suppose exercise is in order once you
have the pain under control?

Yes, I think that is often the case. I once felt women got plenty of
exercise doing routine housework... until a chiropractor pointed out to me that
women often have weak muscles at the back of their shoulders because they spend
so much of their time changing diapers, looking down at small children, washing
various items in sinks installed at the ideal height for a previous generation,
etc. All these activities involve bending forward... and I do more of the same
when I'm crawling around on the floor helping our daughter put on her splint or
retrieving something she's dropped under the bed! My usual exercises provide a
balance which I don't get in the course of my daily work. You may find you are
using certain muscle groups unevenly as well. People tend to do that when some
part of their body hurts. The burden falls on the parts which don't hurt. ;-)

Coincidentally - *maybe* sympathetically |-) I woke
in the middle of the night to what I imagine was rotator
cuff "inflammation". I guess my gland drained itself,
because it was mostly gone by morning. But, back to you....

That was my reaction at first... the pain was mostly gone by morning.
Now's the time to ask yourself, "What have I been doing (or overdoing) recently
which involves that particular shoulder?" You may be surprised when you add it
all up. But in my experience, the sooner you add it all up the better.... :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)