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Timmy at the doctors

So I’ve been having bad pains in my left arm. Have been for well over a year. Friend who is a doctor reminds me that this is not a good sign in a middle aged man.

Hmm, so, have an ECG, blood tests, blood pressure etc.

Pressure’s a bit high (but well below statin requiring levels) but then I’ve been living a bit high on the hog this past couple of weeks. Little exercise (hell, it’s winter here!) etc. ECG is just fine.

So, hmm, where do those arm pains come from then? At which I point out that I dislocated that shoulder a couple of times playing rugby those decades ago. Pffft, injury related arthritis then. Not much anyone can do about that…..

17 thoughts on “Timmy at the doctors”

  1. Bad pain in your left arm for a year ain’t cardiac. Statins are for lipids, not hypertension. Arthritis bad enough to cause severe pain will generally show up on an x-ray, obviously enough that even an amateur could see it. Where did your doctor get qualified?

    Given the duration, a trapped nerve or tendinitis (yes, and arthritis) are high on the list of suspects but it could be anything.

  2. This confirms my belief that rugby is a violent and dangerous sport, and that I was right to steer well clear of it at school.

  3. Tennis elbow is pretty specifically around the elbow, though (I assume Tim would have mentioned it if so).

    It is bloody painful and very hard to get rid of, though.

    Arthritis seems plausible to me; I have broken ribs on my left side two or three times in skiing accidents and now have permanent left side low-level chest pain which is arthritic in nature.

    (I’m only 46 so it’s early but can come from this sort of trauma.)

  4. Do you have shoulder mobility problems, or pain/restriction of arm movement?

    Did you have an X-ray/ultrasound/MRI? If not the quack is guessing.

    Unless arthritic changes demonstrated by radiology, you could have impingement of tendon over the shoulder joint, or calcification of the joint sack.

    These can be treated, the former by physio or surgery, the latter by steroid injection.

    Worth getting it checked as it won’t get better on its own.

    Good luck.

  5. PS Tendon impingement is often injury related, particularly Rugby even without dislocation but from shoulder charging or whatever.

  6. I wasn’t the most athletic at school, and not particularly big, so I got stuck playing hooker. As a result I have two badly damaged rotator cuffs, dodgy knees, permanent serious back pain and isthmic spondylolisthesis . I’m a fucking wreck. I could probably sue these days, if I were the sort of person who did pathetic things like that.

  7. I read this & ponder:
    Sports are advocated as healthy activities?

    Oh well. Just keep telling yourselves…

    I reckon it’s the bangs on the head.
    Or the lack of them…

  8. I’ve found regular doctors are useless at sports injuries. Try a sports physiotherapist of similar age to you (young ones don’t have enough injuries). If that doesn’t work look at changing your office chair. If that doesn’t work, try a different mattress.

  9. If that doesn’t work, try a different mattress.

    Someone else’s perhaps. Because you’re only as old as the woman you feel…

    More seriously, hope it’s nothing serious.

  10. Related perhaps, my ex had a prolapsed disc in her back. I went with her to see a surgeon because she had lived with it so long she tended to downplay the pain. She asked if gardening was ok, he asked if it hurt, she said she enjoyed it but had to lie down for a couple of hours afterwards. I translated that as “she’s in complete and utter fucking agony”. I asked, anxiously, whether that was a problem. He said outright “the joint is stuffed, whatever she wants to do is fine, it can’t get worse”. At least we knew. I had the same problem before foot surgery, put it off forever, when I got the x-ray even I could see the massive amount of soft tissue damage I’d done by leaving it. Which took two years to heal.

    The point is – you get inured to this sort of thing. It grows gradually, you adapt, you get used to it. And that’s a trap. You never know, a quick op might just fix it. Hope so.

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