Continuing on a theme:
(From Pintrest)
After I had seen the specialist physio, two weeks ago now, my Mum and I were talking in the car, thinking about how crazy this year has been. When I was diagnosed by Dr Williams at The Rothman Institute in Philadelphia (in January 2012), he pointed out my rhomboid muscles to my Mum - if you pinch your shoulder blades together, the kind of long 'bumps' or 'hills' that appear between the scapulae and the spine are the rhomboids. He said, "I suppose you were born with rhomboids?"; "um, yes." He then pointed out to my Mum the place on my back right shoulder where there seemed to be a groove, instead of a 'bump' - no muscle.
When we saw Dr Kibler, he did the same thing. He calls it a 'divot' - basically the same thing, a visible deficiency where the muscle should be. It's hard for me to see it properly because it is on my back, but I have managed to set up mirrors at home and see what they were talking about.
Since the surgery, at my major follow up appointments there are certain things I'm always asked to do - strength tested, resistance tested, range of motion tested, small movements tested, etc. Usually my Mum is in these appointments with me.
After the most recent appointment with Marty my Mum said to me, "That's the first time I've seen your muscle move." Turns out, this entire year, in all these appointments, my Mum has been terrified the surgery did not work properly because there was no sign my muscle was moving yet. Another thing I've been told in the past couple of weeks that nobody wanted to mention before! However, given she has now told me, and the muscle is moving, I am delighted I - and she! - don't have to worry about that anymore. Unfortunately it is continuing to protest severely when I try to use it.... but it's ok because I found this poster (also on Pintrest):
And I think perhaps I'll make 100 copies and put it up everywhere... just for some added motivation!
Never, never, never, never give up.
~
Winston Churchill
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