Dr. put me on Methylprednisolone for possible new rotator cuff tear

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

Well, if having the darned FMS isn't bad enough, my shoulder has been

getting steadily worse. Today I saw my orthopedic doctor for the

first time in 6 weeks. Since I last saw him I had seen the

psychiatrist (BTW, the Klonopin is GREAT for anxiety and relieving

nighttime muscle cramps), and the rheumatologist. But nothing, and I

do mean nothing, has been getting rid of my shoulder pain. It has

been " locking up " continuously for over a month now, with last night

being the latest episode.

When I saw the doctor this morning, he finally physically examined my

shoulder and said that even though (HE thinks) I had fairly good

range of motion, the extreme tenderness and pain was not normal. He

thinks either the rotator cuff repair and/or the acromioplasty done

in Feb. 1999 has possibly failed. He didn't come out and criticize

the doctor that did the original surgery, not yet. He seems to be

the type who would voice his opinion if he thought someone was in the

wrong. He " hopes " that he doesn't have to go in and do another

repair. HE HOPES? Fat chance! No one is cutting on my shoulder

again. I would rather have a c-section without an epidural than go

through that again. That was the worst pain I have ever had in my

life. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 15.

He put me on a loading dose of methylprednisolone, 4 mg. tabs. I

have to take 6 today, 5 tomorrow, and so on each day until I'm down

to one on the 6th day. I've never taken oral corticosteroids before,

so I'm not sure what to expect. The doctor said it should calm down

my shoulder and really ease the pain and that he has found the oral

dosing to be more effective than a shot. Has anyone on this list

ever been on this medication?

And drat, he would not give me any pain medication. He doesn't like

to prescribe narcotics. He doesn't think it helps that much. I

happen to think it does, and besides, he's not the one living with

this shoulder. Anything to ease the pain, even if just for a short

time.

I have to have an MRI done on my shoulder Friday to see what's going

on with it. I'm just going to hand over my insurance card and hope

it doesn't come out that my original injury was a worker's comp. case

that settled two years ago. Maybe the insurance will pay, since this

is a whole different situation, but if they think it stems from the

original surgery gone bad, I'll be paying out of pocket.

I applied for Social Security Disability in June and received

additional forms to fill out the middle of August (Daily Living

Questionnaire and Pain Form). I kept waiting and adding doctor's

appointments and their diagnoses and didn't mail them back in. Well,

Saturday I get the same set of forms again with the warning that if I

didn't get them back to them by Oct. 27, then they would base their

decision on the information they already had on file. So, you can

guess what I did most of Saturday and Sunday! I wonder if they are

going to make their decision around Oct. 27, or if that just was a

cutoff date for me to get the forms in.

I had talked to an attorney in June and he said I would probably be

turned down initially, but since then I have had so many doctor's

appointments, including appointments with the psychiatrist, that I

have had plenty to add to the forms. Maybe I'll be in the 40% that

get approved the first time, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

But I will go straight to that attorney the minute I get turned

down. I'm not going to even try to do this on my own.

in Bristol, VA