King of Excellent (according to Scaryduck)

Thursday, June 1

No longer a hard shoulder.

And so, another visit to the Quack’s has been called for. Just under two weeks ago, I spent a sleepless night following what felt like a dislocated shoulder. I couldn’t stretch my arm out straight, lift it above 45 degrees, or pick anything heavy up which is as you can understand a real knock back for my drinking activities. The pain went a couple of days later, and although stiffness was still there, I thought it would just go away.
Well on Monday this week the same happened again, only this time the movement is even less. I retired to bed early last night, just after 10 o’clock, and didn’t sleep very well all night. Every time I turn I mutter “ouch” and settle back to the previous sleeping position, so never really getting comfortable.
After much “ggnnngggh”-ing and struggling to get dressed, I decided to phone the docs. The usual 4 year wait was offered, or I could pop down to my A&E. Now my local A&E is 20 miles away, and is the main A&E for every work-shy chav living in Swansea, so a 5 hour wait can be expected. I believe that the NHS doesn’t need timewasters so I took their advice and phoned the NHS Direct helpline, and after a lengthy description of symptoms and other questions, was told I could have dislocated my shoulder. Something I’d suspected from the start.
Look out, it's a frozen shoulder!
So off I head to my other nearest A&E some 30 miles away in Port Talbot. This is a minor accident centre, so is a lot quieter then normal. After 10 minutes I’d been seen by a doctor, within 20 I’d had an x-ray taken, and I was heading back home again within the hour. The diagnosis is simple; frozen shoulder. I have to take copious amounts of ibuprofen (6 x 500mg tablets a day) and partake in torture physiotherapy weekly for the foreseeable future. So it looks like I’ll end up sitting in the house doing nothing for the next few months.

Nothing new there then.