Regular readers will remember that in January I blogged about how I got injured on my fabulous South East Asia Vacation in Dec 2012. I injured my shoulder and spent about a month in pain. Even after seeing doctors in Bangkok, the healing process seemed to take forever. They said I had pulled a muscle, how long does that take to heal? Still in pain when I got home February 2nd, 2013, I had planned to see someone locally. I think the 32 hour trip home really stressed out my shoulder because I woke up the second day home and couldn’t move my neck and my shoulder was so painful.
I saw a doctor and the lesson I learned is that when you get injured abroad or anywhere, and you’re not getting better, seek more treatment and get another opinion. My pulled muscle turned out to be a few things, the pulled muscle was masking the real issue – a torn rotator cuff – no fun! Luckily I have a great doctor and physical therapist and I’ll be fine – hopefully sometime soon.
What I did learn from my doctor that I thought would be interesting to readers is that many very frequent flyers end up with rotator cuff injuries from continually lifting carry-on bags and putting them in the overhead bins. His suggestion (and I’ll qualify by saying he was the former team doctor for the LA Kings Hockey Team for 7 years) don’t over-pack your carry-on, always lift it with two hands, not just one. He also suggested that you should stretch and reach to grab your bag out of a bin that’s not close by, that puts strain on the muscles in that area too. How many times have you see the guy/gal in front of your lean over two rows of seats to take his/her bag out of the overhead. Even though checking bags is a pain, that’s my plan for the foreseeable future. I’ll just carry my lightweight, Slim Tumi Backpack on the plane.
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