So I told PT that I stopped the one ear to shoulder exercise as it hurt too much and she said "oh the one you were making painful faces on eval day? Yeah. Ok. Stop it." Didn't suggest anything else, or we'll work on that function later down in your recovery. Seemed odd compared to other times/places I've had PT but OK.
First 3 days back at work. Mon/Tues/Fri because of NYE and NYD holiday. Turning my head all day long on my 3 monitors hurt enough followed by PT Monday & Tuesday that I took a muscle relaxer Monday night and I had iced twice at work that day. Tuesday only iced one at work and no M.R. Friday I didn't think to ice until last hour of work day when I realized I was so achey that I wasn't sure I could turn my head for the last hour of work. Next week is 5 days so I'm going to try to remember to ice mid day every day so that hopefully I don't get that feeling at hour 7-8.
Tuesday I had a different PT person and when I mentioned the slight nerve pain in my left arm since starting PT at the very end of session he said "has anyone shown you the trick?" What trick? No! Make your hand into the OK symbol pretending you're holding a small cup of tea. Swing your arm down behind your hip then up toward your mouth but 'dump the cup of tea' all over your chin & neck from like nose height. He said it's like flossing your teeth -It hurts at first like 'why am I doing this?' But starts to help. IDK as I forgot about it the next day of some reason (I swear to god the 6 weeks of doing nothing during recovery, my brain started to atrophy LOL) so I have only done 20 reps a day the last two days.
Sadly after cryfest back on Dec 23rd I had a smoke on car ride home from doctor after 6 weeks of no smoking. And started having one smoke a day that week. That turned into 2-3 a day earlier this week. And then got together with a friend drinking who is also a chainsmoker when drinking (like hubs and I get). I ended up having 11 yesterday 😳. Now is that better than the 30-35 a day I had prior to surgery? And the 40-50 I would have in past drinking with this friend? Yes obviously but I know me. It's all downhill. I hope the 6 weeks I didn't smoke and the reduced smoking is enough to not fuck up the fusion of bone. Anecdotally I've seen people on the group I joined on FB say they didn't quit at all and they fused. And I know 15% of non smokers don't fuse. But the percent of smokers who don't fuse is like 50%. My surgeon wanted me not smoking for 3 months. But I found on line some medical saying 4 weeks and I've found some that talk about 6 months. I can't believe for my breast reduction 22 yrs ago I went almost 6 months before a night of drinking with my old college roommate ended that. And that was just for nice healing & scars on my boobs. This is my frickin spine. Addiction sucks. But back then I wasn't really around anyone that smoked until she showed up. These 8 weeks I've been sitting right next to husband who is smoking two packs a day so a) I don't know what the second hand smoke has been doing to my healing and b) I'm kinda impressed that I made it this long with that temptation right next to me.
The small dagger in my back pain has lessened a bit this past week but it does still feel like I have a this metal rod connecting my shoulder blades and a metal cage in between the should blades on my spine constricting movement a bit.
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