Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  I had been pushing my physical limits for some time...
AH>  but until the pain settled in I didn't consciously add
AH>  everything up.  Seems to me you know when you're overdoing
AH>  it.  I'll know better in future (maybe).  :-)

JB>  Good luck with that! 


          Thanks... I may need it!  Digging down to the next layer, as NT's
are wont to do, I recognize that I come from a long line of people whose
philosophy Elizabeth the Queen Mother explained quite succinctly (IIRC) as
"You just carry on."  She carried on, in reasonably good health, for more than
a hundred years. My family didn't quite match her record, but they defied the
odds as well.  One of the ideas I've been working on is figuring out what they
did right.  Another is learning to acknowledge what my body is trying to tell
me.  If it hurts when I try to do such-and-such, maybe I need to back off for
the time being....  :-)



JB>  Did you - in retrospect - see signs that you should
JB>  slow down with the rotating at the cuff, or did you
JB>  just wake up with it?


          Yes, on both counts.  I did receive a few warning signals.  I
ignored them because they seemed to be temporary.  That's what I'd been taught
to do... but then, as I said, the pain "settled in".  I woke up one morning
when we were getting ready for a camping trip & expressed some concern over
the packing etc. which had to be completed within forty-eight hours.  Dallas
understood what was involved & suggested we postpone the trip.  In retrospect
I'm quite glad we did because otherwise we'd have been away when the pain hit
its peak... [wry grin].



JB>  As you know, I have such a nerve deficit from surgical
JB>  damage, it took me forever to recognize my boundaries,
JB>  and another eternity before I *started*  to respect them.
JB>  I still often need to cue into secondary symptoms to
JB>  realize that damage has occurred, and those often show up
JB>  days later, so....


          I don't completely understand your problem, but I understand that
you may be receiving confused signals from the nerves.  FWIW I also understand
that the "no pain -- no gain" theory has beeen disputed in professional
circles.  It seems to me that if you have a problem which is rather unusual
you must rely on your own intuition.  So you're bucking the tide?  SURVIVORS
often do that.  ;-)



JB>  Seriously, this isn't the first time it has given you
JB>  trouble, right?

AH>  You're thinking of the other shoulder... [wry grin].

JB>  I trust you'll forgive my ignorance? 


          Of course.  You tolerate mine in good spirit....  :-)



JB>   Seriously, I suppose exercise is in order once you
JB>  have the pain under control?


          Yes, I think that is often the case.  I once felt women got plenty
of exercise doing routine housework... until a chiropractor pointed out to me
that women often have weak muscles at the back of their shoulders because they
spend so much of their time changing diapers, looking down at small children,
washing various items in sinks installed at the ideal height for a previous
generation, etc.  All these activities involve bending forward... and I do
more of the same when I'm crawling around on the floor helping our daughter
put on her splint or retrieving something she's dropped under the bed!  My
usual exercises provide a balance which I don't get in the course of my daily
work.  You may find you are using certain muscle groups unevenly as well. 
People tend to do that when some part of their body hurts.  The burden falls
on the parts which don't hurt.  ;-)



JB>  Coincidentally - *maybe* sympathetically |-) I woke
JB>  in the middle of the night to what I imagine was rotator
JB>  cuff "inflammation". I guess my gland drained itself,
JB>  because it was mostly gone by morning. But, back to you....


          That was my reaction at first... the pain was mostly gone by
morning. Now's the time to ask yourself, "What have I been doing (or
overdoing) recently which involves that particular shoulder?"  You may be
surprised when you add it all up.  But in my experience, the sooner you add it
all up the better....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)