Placebo

Several weeks ago I went to raise up my left arm and owwww! I hurt. It worked fine going up and down while parallel to my body, but put it out to the side and it hurt like the dickens.

So I went for about a week thinking I slept wrong on it and it would get better. The next week was spent in denial that I had a hurt arm by convincing myself I could live just fine with partial movement. After all, I’m right handed, I don’t use my left that much. Turns out I do, so I chatted a bit with the Valve Store’s(TM) occupational nurse and she recommended a couple things to try. One was to take a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement. Some studies have shown that they can help with joint pain for those of us who are older than we think. The other was ice applied to the shoulder 3 times a day and taking the recommended dosage of ibuprofen for a week and if that doesn’t work, go see a doctor before it becomes permanent.

On our weekly shopping trip I picked up a bottle of the G&C stuff. What the heck, not only do I have the hurt wing, but the knee that I had arthroscopic surgery on in 2001 is starting to creak. There were 4 different bottles with different quantities at different prices. What with me being a savvy shopper and all, I picked up the bottle with 300 pills in it because it cost less ($30) than the one with 240 ($35.) The dosage says 3 a day, but it doesn’t say when, so I pop 3 at a time with my evening glass of cran-raspberry juice.

It is almost three weeks of swallowing these pills and the knee creaks just as loud as it did before. Now, the shoulder, that’s feeling a lot better, but I’m sure that is because after the week of ice & ibuprofen and no real improvement, I made an appointment with a doctor. This is a whole other post…

Because I invested the money for the pills, I’m going to finish the bottle. I’ll let you know if a miracle happens some time in the next 2-1/2 months.