Last Tuesday after three days of my shoulder hurting, I decided to go see the doctor. Now I did not go see my regular doctor because I belong to a PPO which has never been an issue since I go for regular check-ups and never for emergencies so I see the same doctor. In an emergency situation, she was not available because she only works certain days and hours and she was booked that day so I took the first available appointment with the first available doctor.
Not unlike every doctor’s appointment, they ask why you are there so I went on about my shoulder pain. My favorite and most hilarious question was “could you have been from working out and strained it?” That was a laugh. Yes, I do work out but I hadn’t done upper body weights in days so NO!
I wish I could have pinpointed why and how my shoulder started hurting because I would never even made an appointment.
She then performed some manual arm tests and diagnosed it as a simple “shoulder strain. She told me to take some ibuprofen, put heat on it and do the exercises she printed off. Fine and off I went!!
Then two days later which my shoulder was feeling “eh” better, I got a pain in my upper shoulder as though someone had punched it really hard. I just ignored it! And then a couple of hours later, I got a pain that can best be described as a “twinge” in my lower bicep and then a couple of hours later another “twinge” in my forearm.
Now my brain goes into overdrive and I start looking up heart attack signs. I am not paranoid nor a hypochondriac by any stretch of the imagination but so many people ignore warning signs right and next thing you know they are in the ER or worse. Yes, my mind went there
And I did not have the “signs” of a heart attack but according to the “internet, arm pains can be a sign that you might be having a heart attack.
During my cloud of fear, I called an urgent care facility asking what type of tests they performed and just called for another appointment at my PPO for the next morning.
So the next morning comes and I am still alive, I am thinking should I just skip the appointment and I was planning to skip thinking it is just a shoulder strain even though I was still getting twinges. Well lo and behold, I started getting hot flashes. Was it related? I have no idea so I kept the appointment.
Well, the doctor tells me no I am not having a heart attack and it probably is a shoulder strain but to be safe, he made an appointment with a sports doctor. So I did go to the sports doctor, the shoulder pains still had not gone away and then my neck started to hurt. I am losing it at this point.
He sends me off to get x-rays, prescribes steroids and tells me to put ice on it not heat. So we shall see if my shoulder improves. Stay tuned.
So the lesson is “do not believe everything you read on the internet” and even though you might think it’s nothing just go to see the experts the doctor even it means taking time off from work or it disrupts your day! Life is too precious to ignore “warning” signs and your health is something to be serious about.
