Before I start my rant... I just finished making another therapy tool. While I'm sitting here reading Buick threads I realized I could be working out. With my hand on the table I can flap my left wing up and down. I can't raise my entire arm though. So I figured if I could put weights on my bicep I could exercise my arm. So I used masking tape to tape 2 lbs. of weights from my dive belt around my arm. It worked great for a little over 20 wing flaps. Then it came loose and fell right onto my precious nuts. Ouch!!! Therapy always seems to hurt one way or another. I'll have to figure out a better way to keep the weights around my arm. My rant... I went to the doctor's office today. My Co-pay increased from 45 dollars to 50. What??? Other than getting 4 cool looking X-rays it was a total waste of time and money. This super duper orthopedic surgeon must have spent 4 minutes with me. He checked out my scar. He moved my arm around. Then came the question I knew he would ask, again. Can you lift your arm up? No. He looked at the new X-rays and said, "I'm concerned that the tendon didn't heal correctly where it is connected to the rotator cuff." "Your arm should move up by now." WHAT??? Then he said, "Make an appointment for 8 weeks from now." I had to stop him to ask him 2 questions. Can I water ski? After a weird smirk he said, Yes." Can I do push ups? I already did 3 the other night. I didn't want to push it. He said, "Yes, you are all fixed back up better than new. You are good." That was it for my visit. I then went next door to the therapy office and left a message for Brianna to call me. She called me around 1:30. I told her what the doctor said. She was quiet. Then she asked me if he ordered a MRI. No he didn't. More quiet. Then she asked me about my exercises. I told her I was up to 4 lbs. laying on my back, moving the wand from my belly, straight up, and behind my head in an arc. Then she asked if I could raise my hand up in the air, unassisted, while laying on my back. I can do that. She said, Something is not right." "Those are the same muscles and tendons that he said are not working." Interesting..... Anyhow, this young lady is giving me a freebee tomorrow. She said to come in at 5:30. The office people will be gone. Just walk on back to the gym. She will evaluate me and give me new exercises. That girl is AWESOME!!!!! I'll attach a picture of one of the X-rays. You can see they are Phillip screw heads and they look like self tapping screws. Interesting. Today was cleaning and repainting engine compartment stuff on my 69 Skylark. The car is beautiful. The whole engine compartment needs lots of love. I should have taken before pictures, but I didn't. Joe, how's your arm? Are you still stuck in the warehouse? Lucas, hope you do well with all those cool new parts on that crazy racing truck!!! Hope everyone has a GREAT Easter weekend!!! John
Holy crap look at that x-ray That's crazy stuff there dam. I was in the warehouse that one day and I went nuts told the boss man I can do deliveries that are small items or if the company has there own forklift we're they can off load the freight themselves. So I've been driving around in a smaller truck doing smaller drops . It beats staying at the yard in the hot warehouse. Have a great Easter as well. Now I'm waiting for the physical therapy place to get me more approved appointments.
Dang, John, what a screw job! (pun intended).........Well, at least it sounds like you can get out and do some things you like to do with the water skiing, but I don't know if I'd trust your doc's advise after that visit.....I'm still waiting on the Brianna picture hahahahaha......Joe, happy you get to go back to work. Not your real gig I know, but at least you're getting out. I couldn't sit around all day either.
Good morning Buick fans, I read your posts last night, but I couldn't type anything because I got into some of Briz's 1980 stuff in preparation for today, 4/20. Joe, you are right. That plate and all those screws are some "crazy dam stuff!!!" All the other X-rays made it appear as though the plate was on the inside of my arm. Now that I see where the plate really is I understand the numb feeling I have on the outside of my shoulder. I'm glad to hear you made it out of the warehouse!!! Uh oh, don't tell me you are out of therapy visits too? That is unbelievable how the insurance companies work, or don't work! Lucas... Your pun was well taken! > Trust my doctor??? You are telling me!!! After that visit I'm not wasting my money to go back and see him! We had a family party a couple of weekends ago up by Jupiter inlet. Everyone was knee boarding. I wanted to badly, but just didn't know if "I'm allowed." I like water skiing also. Time for some fun!!! Tom... You are so right. I think I got nailed and screwed! I didn't get to see Brianna Friday. She texted me and said she was sick and didn't go to work yesterday. I'm going Monday afternoon. Being I will be the last patient of the day I will do my best to get a picture of Brianna, just for you Lucas. I'm glad my appointment got delayed. I now have more questions to ask Brianna. Yesterday after I did my sets of exercises I was messing with myself. (Not like that!) Seeing what I can, and cannot do. I was amazed at what I could do!!! That doctor is sooooo wrong! If I lay on my back I could pretty easily lift a 2 lbs. weight in all different directions. Something I never tried before. Those are exactly the muscles and tendons the doctor said aren't working. WRONG!!! I personally think I'm so weak because of the delay in CAT scans and surgery caused by the insurance company! I went almost 2 months with my arm in a sling waiting for surgery, and then another 2 months with my arm in that hideous immobilizer recovering from surgery. No wonder my muscles don't work!!! Anyhow... Enough of that rant. I will keep fighting the fight and I AM GOING TO LIFT A FULL BEER OVER MY HEAD SOON!!!! I would rather be a 2nd place loser to Joe, than to score a big DNF! Yesterday we had a family birthday party for my Grand daughter. I'll include 2 pictures of the birthday card I wrote and colored with my left hand. (Yes, my right hand sometimes had to guide my left arm.) I like making home made birthday cards! Today is the big birthday party with friends included. It's a pool party and the theme is mermaids. Holley supposedly has a mermaid outfit bathing suit. Should be very cute! My wife made the birthday cake. It is actually an ice cream cake. Delicious!!!!
Keep it up John you will soon be able to lift that brew up high. Have a good week I'm waiting on a phone call that approves my next 12 physical therapy appointments.
Morning Joe, My youngest son's future mother in-law was over Saturday. She's a nurse practitioner with her own office. I showed her my latest X-rays. Immediately she started feeling on my upper arm. I said, "What are you doing?" She said, "Did you look at your X-rays closely." "You have a screw sticking out of your arm bone." "Do you feel it?" Fortunately, No! I'll have to see if I can find that picture in the computer. Crazy! I see Brianna today at 5:30. Hopefully she'll give me some useful new exercises. Hope your therapies get approved! Have a GREAT day!!! John
Ah, it's barely sticking out. Hopefully my bone marrow won't leak out. I'll have to get a can of "fix a flat" and seal it up. >
I've got a picture of some of my therapists.... one is blonde, one is hairy, one is old enough for me. Stephanie left, unfortunately, while Brianna was giving me instructions. It'll have to wait until tomorrow. 1:02 and time for sleep!!!!
So what do I want to write? My mind is kinda numb. Yes I'm sober and not hanging out with Briz. To much to absorb in to short a time. So I went and saw Brianna yesterday. I felt like a celebrity when I walked in! All the therapists were glad to see me. Stephanie, no picture included, came up to me and chatted away. What a nice girl! She's the youngest therapist there and definitely a party-er. Back to reality... Brianna looked at the 8 pages of exercises she had given me a month ago. I had notes scribbled down about things I could do well, and things I can't do well. She tested me on some of the exercises. She was happy with me being able to lay on my back and move my arm all over the place. I can do that with a 2 lbs. weight also! We talked about what the doctor had said. They were amused that he said I could water ski. I told them he said I could do push ups. They ALL yelled NO!!! Then Stephanie said, "Let me see you do some push ups." I got on the floor and promptly did 3 push ups real quick. They were all laughing! James, the head therapist, said, "I expected you to fall on your face!" It was a good time until Brianna had me lay face down on the bed and she wanted me to do new arm movements. So sad.... I didn't even know I couldn't do these arm movements. Bummer! So in addition to the 8 pages of exercises I already had, she gave me 2 more pages of exercises. Dam, now it's going to take 2 hours to complete everything assigned to me every day! The best way to explain these "new" arm movements would be swimming. I found out if I were swimming face down I probably, never mind, I can't put my arm in front of me. Another exercise, again swimming, if you swimming along and you saw something on the bottom and tried to pick it up. I can't do that. Maybe I shouldn't try knee boarding or water skiing just yet. I probably can't swim with my left arm!!! It's so weird that I can do push ups, but I can't lift my arm up the other direction. I never knew there were so many different ways that our muscles work. Oh well... I need to get out of my mopey mood and get this day started. On a happier note... I was having dinner at my son's house last night. I'm sitting next to my best little buddy, my 3 year old grandson. He is gobbling up all of his dinner. This boy eats! He pulls his shirt sleeve up to show me how big his muscle is getting. I tell him, "You better slow down. Your getting big to fast!" He tells me, "I can't slow down. I don't have any brakes, only gas!" We all busted out laughing!!! This kid is a total motorhead. He wakes up doing burnouts! We have him convinced that only Buicks are good race cars. Trucks... only Chevy's are good trucks. Sorry Lucas. You can be the exception. When we drive down the street he picks out the different trucks. "There's a Chevy Papa!" Then he makes a burnout sound. "There's a Dodge Papa." "Piece of junk!" This kid puts a smile on my face EVERYDAY!!!!!! So here's the picture for you Lucas... the old man on the right side who doesn't know how to shave is me. Brianna is next to me. I describe her as my "mini mom." She says things like, "So, how is my shoulder?" She really cares about her patients as evidenced by her getting me into the office for a freebee. To cool!!! Next is James. He is the head therapist and even though he'd send me home aching, he is good. On the far left is Terry. I only had her a couple of times. She is a warm, caring person! I can only say I am blessed to have these people looking out for me!!!!! Hope you all have a GREAT day!!!! John PS... I had to include a picture of my motorhead Grandson and Grand daughter watching Papa work on his truck.
Last Friday was Good Friday, but this Friday was even better! Brianna texted me videos of herself. WHAT!!! Oh heck ya. 3 videos. I sent them to my E-mail and downloaded them. Now I can't find them in the computer. Well, I can find them, but they're not where the Buick forum can download them when I hit the upload button. I will work on that tonight. No Joe, I don't want any pictures or videos of your big, fat Latina therapist!!! OK, I can't lie to you all. She said in a text that she has 3 more exercises for me to do, but she can't explain them in words. So she sent me videos of her doing the exercises. Still interesting for an old perv! She also said the therapy office is going to check into seeing if my insurance will cover "electrical stimulation." More what!!! She said, "It helps recruit muscle cells to help you strengthen." Oh crap, I will be The Million Dollar Man. Anyhow... It's 1:30 eastern time and my son just woke up from his night shift job. We are going boating to Peanut Island with the grand kids, youngest step daughter, and her crazy friend. If I get a chance to knee board, I will. Somebody will take my picture. Y'all have a GREAT weekend and I'll send videos when I can get them to the right spot in the computer. Crazy John
That's awesome, John. Sounds like you got a real friend that cares in Brianna. Read your pm to Joe and myself, and your offer will be in the back of my mind for sure. Have a great weekend, sounds like you're starting it off right!
Lucas, I couldn't agree with you more about that young lady! I sure am glad to have a little angel looking after me. Halfway through the texts she texted, "I hope my texts aren't bothering you." I wrote her back and said they were the same as hearing her voice....... "John, do your exercises. All of them!" She is just way to cool!!!!! You have a good weekend too!
Joe... there's a new Sheriff in town and he's looking for you! That was the best starting phrase I could think of. I'm talking about the beer can over the head challenge. No, I'm not there yet, but I'm close! I've been doing ALL the exercises Brianna gave me to do everyday. Believe me, they suck and take dam near 2 hours to complete. Afterwards my shoulder is NOT happy. Your dang BIG friend still likes punching people in the shoulder! Anyhow, I've been increasing the weights as much as I can. It's a slow process. No weights, then 1, 2, 3, and now I'm up to 4lbs. When I finished my exercises today I reached as hard as I could for the ceiling. My arm went up!!!!!! It won't stay up at all, but it goes up. Wow! Hell yes I'm celebrating with an 11 AM beer! Last Sunday I went swimming in the neighbor's pool. Go ahead and laugh at us Floridians Lucas. We won't go swimming until the water is at least 80. What??? I got in the pool and it felt soooo good having my arm horizontal without straining. I love buoyancy. I went to the deep end, sank to the bottom, and my arm would go straight up. Put a beer in that hand! Nah, that's cheating. I will include a cheating picture though. I figured I could swim doing the doggie paddle. I could. I tried traditional swimming on my belly. Better than I expected. At least I didn't go in circles. My left arm won't go up in the air, but it does sling forward. I swam on my back. I could do that. When I woke up Monday morning my shoulder wasn't sore, but my whole arm sure was tired. A good feeling I think. Now I have a predicament... Do I tell my wife that my arm is starting to go up. I do a lot of house work while Deb is at work. I know, what a good husband! When I empty the dishwasher I just put all the stuff that goes in the upper cabinet shelves on the counter. If my arm starts to work I'll have more house work to do. That's not good. Oh well... time to shake crumbs out of rug mats and vacuum. We had a family dinner party last night. How come I get stuck cleaning the mess? I hope your therapy is going well Joe. Did you get the OK for more therapy, or are you on your own too? Did you make it back into your BIG truck yet? Lucas, I hope your crazy truck racing is going well too! Hopefully I'll be back with a beer over my head picture real soon................. (On land) John PS... I can drive my sandrail around again. Anyone can get in a sandrail, but you need two arms to get OUT of one!!! I'll include a picture of my son in at when we were on St. Augustine Beach.
The rest of my therapy starts next week I'm still just doing a bunch of running around at work in the smaller truck which is ok it's actually a bit more work as I do multiple stops and lifting a bunch of boxes etc at each stop so it's more excersises than usual but it's all good. I'm feeling great to be honest. Have a great week
Hahaha....that's awesome, John! We go swimming year round here because there's a lot of resorts and natural hot springs. Nothing better than relaxing in a natural 120 degree pool when it's 20 degrees out and snowing on your head. It's truly amazing....Racing went really well the first weekend. I won my class both days, and took 5th overall Saturday and 9th Sunday, and that's against everything including full on tube chassis race cars. Here's a couple pics and a picture of the racing schedule. The ones listed in blue are for my region, and I have to hit 7 races for our region's points championship. That Miata in the pic of the schedule is the club president, and that's his time in 1st place on my results pic. It's a full chromemoly tube chassis and mostly carbon fiber everything else with 200 hp. Basically an engine with 4 slicks. He's "only" 5 seconds ahead of me, but in a 30-40 second lap, that's an eternity.....I'm probably only going to hit the races in blue as I'm going for points this year and the others would basically be just for fun, so as you can see, I'm on hiatus for a month....... Keep up the good fight, buddy, looks like you're having a good time!
Joe... Very glad to hear you are feeling great! At least one of us healed quickly. Lucas... Wow, you may look at the chart differently than I do. You may be in 5th place, but look at all those sports cars that you whipped butt on!!! Great job to both of you!
Thanks for the kind words, John. I do look at it like you do...... I'm super, SUPER happy with how well the truck does . It's really got no business being where it's at haha.
Hey Guys, Thought I'd give you an up-date on my lazy arm. First, I made a prediction many posts ago that when I could lift 6 lbs. doing my exercises my arm would be much better. It is much better, but it won't stay up yet. Soon I believe. I can pop it straight up like a kid raising their hand in class, but it won't still stay up. Maybe a second now. I can do many things though. I can drink most of my beer with my left hand. I can sit back and relax with my hands on my head without my left hand pulling my head to the left. I can turn light switches on the wall on and off. I can do lots of things today that I couldn't do a month ago. Brianna still texts me and gives me guidance. Boy am I thankful for my little angel!!! Joe, I know you are far ahead of me, and I hope you are still moving forward!!! Lucas, I hope your racing is going well!!! Time for some food. John
