Not at all Humerus

I've had to take a break from swimming for two reasons.  First being the pain in my neck was getting worse and every time I swam it was pretty unbearable that evening. Second being that it appeared I started a trend at the gym, and I could just never get any space in the pool to stretch or swim - given that I was not really able to swim reliably in a straight line, since I had a wonky flipper, and couldn't swim fast, it wasn't possible for me to share lanes. One time there 4 swimmers per lane, which in a pool that tiny meant they were already crashing into each without me adding my infirmity to the melee. So I'm focusing on running, and stretching. It's going pretty well, and I can run 30 minutes now without any issues. My range of motion is improving a lot towards the front. I can walk my hand up the wall about 135 degrees (if 180 was up straight next to my head and 90 was horizontally straight out in front of me). I can still only lift to 90 degrees ou...

In the last year I have had medical treatments, including surgery, in both Australia and England, and I've been covered by private health insurance in both countries. The comparisons are interesting to me. The "public" system in Australia, for non-hospital treatment, is far superior to England, in my experience. The Australian government is in the business of managing the registration of doctors, and funding medications, it is not in the business of employing doctors. In Australia you have a medicare card issued by the government, and you can go to any GP you feel like (there is no need for registration, you just attend whatever surgery is convenient for where you are on that day), and there is a standard schedule fee for all types of GP appointment. Some GPs bulk-bill, meaning they only charge the medicare fee, and you will pay nothing. Some GPs charge more than the medicare fee, and you pay the difference. It's entirely down to which GP surgery you decide to...

Out for a run again this morning, up to 25 minutes non-stop running, and no pain, so that's great progress for me. I was thinking today of things that I can now do that I couldn't do at all in the first month after the break. Things I can do now: Well, running of course is a big one for me. But other things are just as important for every day living ease. Sleep! The biggest one really. I can now sleep, and I do sleep really well. I can sleep on my left side, I can roll from one side to the other at night, with a few small twinges, but no pain. I can now sleep with only one pillow, like I used to. At one stage I had 3 pillows under my head and right shoulder to keep me upright, and the fort of pillows to prop up my back to stop me moving in my sleep. I can use my left arm for washing my face, blow drying my hair (sort of), carrying things as long as they aren't too heavy, tying shoelaces, typing, putting moisturiser on my face and body, opening doors, hanging out...

Yesterday I had a lazy day, sleeping for 11 hours, only getting up 11:30, and then watching a Murder She Wrote marathon, followed by a bath, and then back to bed. My excuse was to recover from the fall yesterday, although other than some stiffness and aches, I was actually fine. To make up for all that laziness, I ran to Hertford this morning, as part of W6R2 of C25K. That's it for intervals now, from here to the end it is all longer runs with no walking breaks. Will be interesting to see how my left knee holds up. I tripped on a stone and nearly fell, but luckily just a bit of ungainly staggering and I was able to continue running this time. Once at the gym, I swam a few lengths of backstroke and breaststroke, did some stretches, and then spent 20 minutes in the sauna as the pool got a little crowded for me. The pool just had a few swimmers in it when I emerged from the sauna, so I hopped back in for a few more lengths and some stretching. I hold onto the side of th...

Walking fast and London pavements are a bad mix, apparently. I caught my toe on a raised edge of concrete paving and at first thought I would just stagger a bit, and then momentum caught up and I realised I was going to fly. There was a moment when time stood still and I tried to decide which side to fall on - the broken left shoulder, or the broken right hand? Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough, and landed on both palms, and my right knee. Some very kind people came rushing over to help, including one who said he was a physio. He helped me up, and asked me to move my hands around, and then lift my arms out to the side. Poor guy got quite panicked when I couldn't with my left, until I mentioned I was recovering from a broken shoulder. Then he got more panicked and said I needed to go to hospital and get x-rays. Nope, not quite ready to spend more time with the NHS just yet. My right knee was grazed and bleeding through my jeans. I proceeded (more cautiously) to work,...

Well, for this year anyway. Today I was back to see Mr Shoulder, and the physio. I went for a run this morning, and was feeling pretty good. Apparently it showed. I said he'd lied to me about pain after the surgery, that I didn't have any - he said most people did find it painful, I was an exception, but did promise that next time he operated on me he would make sure it hurt. Ha. I think it was more that I was just bad at articulating how painful it was before the surgery, so my pain benchmark may have been a lot higher than other people's. He said he'd heard I'd been swimming, which threw me completely. How? The physio told him. Ah. Well. She only knows a tiny part of it, actually. I explained about the actual swimming, and difference it was making, and he seemed delighted. I also told him I was back to the level of running I was at before the accident, and he said I was going to do fine. He showed me pictures of the inside of my shoulder, with a comparison of ...

On June 6th, the day before the bus driver tried to launch me as a missile and broke me so badly, I had just finished Week 5 Run 2 of the Couch-to-5K and was looking forward to Week 5 Run 3 that Sunday. Apparently during my garbled non-stop talking at the paramedics and staff at St Thomas's I kept going on about the delay to my running. Week 5 Run 3 is the first longer run, without intervals and I was really unhappy about having to abandon the attempt. With the damage to my shoulder, and the associated muscle wastage and loss of condition, I decided the only option was start from scratch, to let my shoulder get back in the swing (literally) of it gently. This weekend I completed Week 5 Run 2, so I am now back to where I was before this whole fun episode started. Tomorrow I'm planning to do Run 3, which feels like I'm finally moving forward past this hellish experience, and the future looks more optimistic. Can't wait. This morning I attempted to get the train to...

Finally something that works brilliantly. I grew up swimming, we had a pool, and I was on the swimming team. So I can swim, and I really love to swim. This week I went to hydrotherapy, and it was superb. Well no, in fact the hydrotherapy wasn't, it was too slow for me. But being in the pool was wonderful. My arm was supported and it was so easy to move it. First I was supposed to walk up and down the lengths, swinging my arms at my sides under water. This seemed too easy, so I decided to try breaststroke instead. Initially I didn't think I could, but then it worked. My left arm couldn't quite get the full forward and out sweep of it, but it got better with each stroke, and as horrible as it sounds there were all these tearing sensations in the part of my upper arm that had had the hard, sore lump in it since the beginning. They weren't pleasant but immediately after each tear, my arm felt longer somehow, and less twisted. I started to swim proper breaststroke, and k...