Wow it’s been six months since I posted anything about my shoulder, and considering I said I would post in a couple weeks after my doctor’s appointment well…I suppose should post an update. So much has happened but I’ll try to be brief. In my last post Perspective I talked a little about how I was taken out of physical therapy.

I once again went to the doctor, who prescribed an ERMI chair. It’s a device that helps stretch you back to a decent range. It didn’t work for me and was very painful, to say the least. So after a couple months of using the torture chair, as I had so aptly named it, I again went to the doctor who decided to do schedule a “manipulation under anesthesia”. In case you do not know, that is where they knock you out and crank your arm/shoulder in every direction to break up adhesions and scar tissue so you can potentially get more free movement.

I went to my worker’s comp rep and gave them the awesome (insert sarcasm here) news; they seemed less than thrilled, but as far as I knew everything was fine. The next week, the doctor’s office called to let me know I was scheduled for surgery and they set a pre-op visit. I went to that visit, then headed over to the hospital for pre-op EKG and blood work, no hiccups. If you have ever had a surgical procedure, you know this is just literally days before.

Now I was told I would be in physical therapy the day following the manipulation, the problem was I never heard from worker’s comp about a time for my appointment. I did not think I would have time later, so on the morning of my procedure I decided to call to make sure therapy was actually scheduled (last time it took too long to get that set up). I first spoke with the worker’s comp assistant. I asked her about my appointment and she just said “umm” and told me to “hold”. When the worker’s comp manager got on the phone, she told me that the procedure was never approved. What?! Never approved? OK? She then informed me that I instead had an appointment with a NEW doctor for an “Independent Medical Exam” a month later, which means I was being evaluated for their consideration of how to further handle my worker’s comp claim. Apparently there was also a letter sitting on someone’s desk that was supposed to tell me all of this but it was not mailed until several days after the fact.

I did see the new doctor in August, which is a whole separate story in and of itself. Please stay tuned for part five of….. THE SHOULDER SAGA

P.S. Don’t worry I’ll try and post part five within the week.

Addendum: As frustrated as I was and am about my shoulder, and the fact that I was not told that the manipulation procedure was never approved, I am glad it was not done. The new doctor said very clearly that I was a high risk for fracture because the bone has deteriorated quite a bit because of the inability to use my arm properly. So whoever decided to go in a different direction probably saved me a lot of misery, not to mention a broken arm. So to that person, “thank you”.

Read Part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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