If Not Today...

My elbow has been hurting since before I had my surgery.

Ever notice how funny that word is? Elbow. It sounds so, I don't know, juvenile!

Anyway, I noticed it early November when I couldn't pick up a glass of tea without whencing. But then, I got sick and had my surgery. NOTHING hurt after that because of the pain meds.

But a couple of weeks ago, it started hurting again and NOTHING worked. So, I made an appointment to see a orthopedic doctor today. I was pretty excited when I got up this morning. The pain was going to stop! I would be able to lift and fully extend my arm without crying out or flinching from the pain. It was going to be a GREAT day!

So I went in and the doctor came in really quickly. He asked about my elbow and then began to do a few tests. First, was the "squeeze my finger" test. Newborns can squeeze harder than I could. How pathetic! He then flexed my middle finger and I squealed in pain. How stupid! And then he started to feel on my arm and, besides the fact that his fingers felt like ice packs, he touched this one spot and I literally had to refrain from slapping him. That would be embarrassing! He ordered xrays and I was amazed that I could not even lie my arm straight on the xray table.

He came back in and said my xrays were fine (not being able to lie my arm straight is NOT fine) and that he would give me a "little injection" of Cortizone and a numbing medication and a prescription for some anti-inflammatory meds and my elbow would be as good as new in a few days. I noticed right away, he was grinning. If you know ANYTHING about doctors, there are two hints there: 1) what kind of medication requires a numbing agent to give via injection and 2) he was grinning.

Here is how the conversation went:

Me: You're grinning, that means this is gonna hurt.
Him: Well.....
Me: Okay, tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, how painful is this going to be?
Him: It depends
Me: I love it when even doctors don't answer doctor questions.
Him: (laughing) for different people, it feels different ways. Some never even flinch, some have a caniption. You know your elbow is really tender, right?
Me: Yeah....OOOOWWWWWWEEEEE! That really hurts!
Him: You need to be still
Me: Holy cow that hurts!
Him: Just a little bit. (A little?! On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 14!)

Immediately after the shot, my arm felt amazing. I had full range of motion and the soreness was minimal. I was so excited! Then he told me it was just the numbing medication and that in a few minutes, I would be hurting even more. He wasn't lying...30 minutes later it hurt so bad I had tears in my eyes.

Now, it is stiff and hurts and I'm NOT happy. I thought the pain would be gone today.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow!