Well, it finally happened. My turn, ladies. I’ve spent years on this forum, watching people post about their aches and pains and, yes, crippling shoulder injuries. And now it’s my turn – seems fitting, really. You can only lurk in the background for so long before you hurt yourself.
I’ve been talking to my doctor about it for a few weeks, and he’s been dancing around a diagnosis for just as long. He says there’s something to do with my elbow, referring pain up into my shoulder, so he’s ordered an elbow arthroscopy to make certain.
It was a relatively simple procedure, all things considered – just a couple of small nicks, and then they inserted a small camera in to have a look at the bone and to see if anything was hanging around in there that shouldn’t be. Apparently there was nothing to actively remove at the time – heaven forbid it be too easy – so now I’m booked in for a more specialised examination.
The guy they’ve got me to see is a friend of a friend of my GP, some big-shot shoulder injury specialist near Melbourne who made some time to come and see me. In a way, I’m a little bit annoyed at all this special treatment – I’ve seen what you guys post! It’s taken some of you months, even years, to get the sort of appointment that I got without even breaking a sweat (or a bone).
Still, I can reflect on my privilege while I’m on the train to Melbourne, typing out this blog post for all of my friends across Australia. Every jolt in the track feels like it’s going to rip my shoulder out of my socket and I’ll have to bend over and stow it in the compartment above my seat.
Almost there now though – I can almost see their boring skyline now, as the sun is setting. I’m looking forward to a warm hotel bath and a soft hotel bed.
And then tomorrow, a man finally fixes my damned shoulder.