Sunday, January 5, 2014

Bilateral Epicondylitis

No, it isn't any more fun than it sounds. Bilateral epicondylitis

I am just too good at being a cashier. Pushing through over 1000 (and upwards of 1200) items per hour on a full time bias will take it's toll.
It's been creeping up for about the last year but I put on the arm bands and started taking Aleve. When those stopped being effective my Dr. prescribed Vimovo and I finally had to be written off of the belts and relegated to the Express lanes. Unfortunately I still put through the same # of items and it was such a busy time of year that it was of no consequential relief. About a month ago my doctor put me on lighter duties and it became a whole WSIB Thing.
I miss being a cashier. Not that I don't have the skills to be on the sales floor or that it isn't a nice change but I really love the Front End.
Unfortunately 3 weeks of zoning (picking up and putting away) didn't help. It was less than being on cash but still too much. I have now been put on the lightest and most menial of duties - scanning outs, changing labels and only the merest of zoning. Still important but I have a very hard time not doing the most that I can the fastest that I can. I am getting better at it though.
I've been doing the exercises and will have to start actual physio for the ultrasound and other adjuvant therapies. I ice it constantly - I even take an ice pack to work.
I go back to the Dr. in a week and since I am still not feeling any appreciable improvements I will be referred to a sports specialist and will most likely have to do the Cortisone shots.

My knitting output has decreased over the last year, but fortunately the way that I support my knitting and the way that I just flick the yarn keeps my knitting from being a stressing factor but the pain in general is what puts me off. I took a week off of knitting and my elbows (though it's mainly my right one) weren't helped; I even had worse days if I did too much (like using a can opener) :-\

I know - I'm a physical disaster!!! And of course I fall into the 10-20% that have bilateral symptoms.

But I'm a Survivor and I can totally deal with this. I need to - baseball season is coming!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2 comments:

  1. Pain sucks. In any form, it just plain sucks. I hope you are able to find some relief soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. n the stage III setting, we truly need to separate patients into the ones who have minuscule ailment in their lymph hubs versus the patients who present with massive infection and plainly visible ailment,


    Adjuvant Therapies

    ReplyDelete