Frozen Shoulder and Rochelle visit

Time just slips away, faster than grains of sand in an hourglass. A couple of weeks ago my friend, Rochelle Stanford came up from southern California. She stayed over the weekend and I had a blast. Well, almost. I had gotten the H1N1 (swine) flu shoot on Wednesday and by Friday, I had a bad reaction.

Rochelle showed up on Friday evening and we spent the evening chatting. Getty order Chinese food and they ate. I took one bite and gave the rest to Tess and Nan, who thought they had hit the mother lode. I lay on the couch with body aches, chilly and feeling bad. I thought that I had just been pushing myself hard.

I don’t know if I had mentioned it but I got an MRI for my shoulder and found out it was a frozen shoulder. It wasn’t a torn rotor cuff.

However, with a frozen shoulder you have to do very aggressive Physical Therapy. My shoulder hurt quite a bit, like a knife is stuck in it and some nights I wake up in extreme pain. They think it will take six months for it be better so I guess for the next six month, I will be in pain, getting PT and slowly gaining use of my arm. As of now, I can lift it level to my shoulder and have no strength in it.

Now, the PT has been pure torture. They have to push you past the point of pain (like pass-out) to break the shoulder free. For more info on frozen shoulder, go here (article). I have seen a lessening of pain the last few weeks but am on meds to help with the pain.

Or those of you that had frozen shoulder, how long did it take, what caused it and what do you do now to prevent it from happening again?

At one trial in Feb, a handler gave me some exercise tips, which helped quite a bit. Those exercises have helped also. I do my exercises each day at lunch and at night. If I don?’ stay on top of it, I will slid backwards. I am so looking forward to being not in pain again. I calculated that I have been in pain for 21 months. The good news is the incision in my sternum has healed and no pain there.

One-step at a time. This is the last step I hope!!

Some of my students have helped me out quite a bit since I have limited use of my arm. Janet, for example, comes every Thursday, and does chores. She has gone from a city girl to a real farm girl. She can muck out a stall in record time, help catch and band lambs, move stock and other useful items that would look great on her resume. Monique also helps pick up the load when she by. Getty does a lot of the heavy work for me. My goal is by summer to pick up my share of the work again.

On Saturday, Rochelle and I got up and had coffee and breakfast. That was a big step from the night before when I had no appetite. Then Jane showed up, with a decaf Latte for me (Bless her heart as she does this all the time for me) and we went down to the barn to feed and then work dogs. First order of business was to feed hay to the sheep. We loaded up some hay and then I felt clammy and sat down. I got hot so took off my jacket and decided that I wasn't feeling so good. Janet was going to feed the chickens so I told her that I was going back to the house.

I started back to the house and got halfway through the barn when I felt dizzy so I called out to Janet. Then I passed out.

Tess cuddled next to me on the couch.

Rochelle and Janet had to help me back to the house as I fainted several times. I got clammy, cold, and dizzy and out of it. Janet called Getty to come home and then we talked to Kathy Davis, my Doctor friend and Rochelle called her husband, Bob Dias. I just lay on the couch. I can’t think of when I blacked out so many times. After some investigation, it was determined it was a severe reaction to the swine flu shot. I had the flu symptoms and slept on the couch for the rest of the day. Rochelle and Janet were going to work Tess and they called her. Tess glared at them and stuck next to me, on nurse duty. It was obvious that she had no interest in working but only wanted to protect me. So Tess and I cuddled next to each other for the rest of the day. Nan was next to my feet. Nothing better than a Nursemaid and a Body Guard when you are feeling sick!

I guess the day was horrible, weather wise. It rained and Janet, Rochelle and Kathleen worked dogs. The mud was pretty deep too. I wouldn’t know, being in la-la land. Roo got worked by Rochelle and for the most part on his best behavior. I think Rochelle wants to sneak Roo home. She owns Koko, his full sister.

Me, Rochelle and Janet

Later that day, I got up and was feeling much better. We all had planned to go to a nice restaurant for dinner but decided to go to the local bar/pub instead. Getty declined to go out with us as he knew we would talk dogs. That would put him into a coma in seconds flat. I actually felt much better and a bit of an appetite.

Rochelle and Janet

It was great. We laughed, cried, talked dogs, and had a great time. Rochelle is one of my best friends that I have known for years and she and Bob are family, since they own Koko. Jane is also one of my other best friends, she owns Scott. Both are very good people and I am glad they are my friends.

I even ate part of my dinner. They had prime rib and I love prime rib. Rochelle had the best looking Thai salad that I made Getty go back and get for me on Tuesday!! It was a fun evening and we had a good time. I can’t wait for Rochelle to come back up again.

Rochelle had to leave on Sunday and it was sad to see her go. But before she left, we worked dogs. I was still feeling pretty punky so was going easy on training. Of course, the day was nice and sunny as she was leaving. Someone has a mean sense of humor.

It was a great visit with Rochelle; too bad, I was sick for part of it. But I promise for her next visit, I will be well. I hope that that will be soon.