On the Shoulder
About ten years ago I was in for an annual check-up with my doctor. He was an Irishman working as a GP at NYU and he had a good crisp sense of humor. In my effort to get my money’s worth from the visit, since I never seemed to have much wrong with me, I asked him about my right shoulder. It had been bothering me a little and I tried to describe the slight discomfort as I rotated it. I had friends (mostly those inclined towards tennis) who had had rotator cuff surgery and I guess I was feeling left out. My doctor looked at me flapping my sore wing, rubbed his chin and said, “that’s what we call 50-year-old shoulder.” I asked if I needed to pay extra for that crack diagnosis and he waved his hand and said it was free of charge. I went off and my shoulder aches faded.
Well, I’m 68 years old now and after a day of hard work on the back hillside yesterday (putting in new steel edging to replace the old plastic stuff that was coming undone), I went to bed with a sore right shoulder. After a clinical dose (800 mg) of Extra Strength Tylenol st 4am, I awoke with a case of painful 68-year-old shoulder. I don’t recall any particular trauma in the course of my hillside work, but I will admit to a degree of neglect for my upper body in the course of most of my outdoor work. When it comes to my legs and knee joints in particular, I am both very aware of how I use them and especially cautious to not over-stress them. Nowhere is this more apparent than in how I negotiate going down stairs. I do not want to blithely injure myself by falling, only to find my mobility forever compromised. I am also especially careful getting up at night. I sit on the bed for a moment to make sure I am ready and able to stand squarely and walk smoothly rather than stumble around. But I admit to far less care with my upper body.
I have spent a lifetime as a much larger than average man and have almost never bothered to lift weights. I had little to prove in terms of strength and consequently, I ignored my upper body training. I played my share of racquet sports, but never so much as to injure myself either with tendinitis or a shoulder problem. This has made me somewhat cavalier about my upper body and whether it can handle everything I might throw at it. It was less about feeling impervious and more about just being rather oblivious. As I have started doing projects around the house, I notice that I am using my upper body more than I have before. The yard work and the construction tasks I have taken on this year especially (as Handy Brad has been busy elsewhere), have tended to use more upper body effort. There has been lots of lifting and toting and especially lifting things high due to the Hobbit House. And I’m now feeling all of it in my right shoulder.
Over the past year I have come into the unfortunate habit of waking up most nights in the middle of the night. When I do, I have the worst muscle aches in my neck and shoulders. I don’t recall having such aches and pains so regularly and I have generally tended to attribute them to to my pillow or the manner in which I sleep on my side. Nothing that a few Extra-Strength Tylenol can’t handle. Specifically, I tend to take 600 mg. for some reason, as though to tell myself that a full clinical dose is not required. It’s a quirk, I guess. But somewhere along the way, I began to realize that there was more going on than just sleeping funny. I began to think that it had more to do with my property project labors, and I suspect that I am right.
Today I did something that I had been planning to do, but was probably not so advisable. I went on a long motorcycle ride (about 100 miles). It was probably unadvisable because motorcycling tends to take a toll more on the shoulders than anywhere else. Even though it was my right shoulder that felt the worst pain, as I lifted my left shoulder I noticed that it too was rather sore. It seems I had managed to screw up both shoulders at once. When I got on the bike to start my ride, I could feel the twinges in either shoulder, depending on which direction I was turning the handlebars. It was a testament to my love of the ride that I carried on and hit the road. It was a glorious day for a ride. Not too hot and not too cold. Sunny, but not beating down strongly.
I took my usual route out on Castle Creek Road to Lilac Road through Valley Center and out to the Rincon Reservation. That led me out onto Rt. 76 that runs along the base of Palomar Mountain, which is where my decision point always rests. Do I go up the mountain on the South Grade Road (S6) and down the East Grade Road (S7) or do I just carry on 76 to Lake Henshaw? My plan was to have lunch at my favorite spot, the Lake Henshaw Cafe. It felt too early to straight there and I figured that the weather was pleasant enough that a ride up and down the mountain would put me at the cafe at just the right time for an early lunch.
The risk with the S6 side up, which is one switchback after another, is that I would have to suffer the ignominy of some hot knee-scrapers passing me and making me feel old or at least cautious, something I would rather not feel while on a ride. I don’t have that problem on S7 heading down since that is more a sweeper run and I don’t recall having anyone try to pass me on it. Strangely enough, I encountered no knee-scrapers on wither road this morning. But what I did encounter was a white Ferrari on my back fender midway up S6. I had just passed slow and obstinate car on a wide-open chicane and there he was. I have great respect on this road for anyone trying to race the road, so I slowed and waved him on. Before I knew it, he was not only past me, but literally out of sight.
When I got to Lake Henshaw Cafe, and for the first time since I left home, I felt my shoulders aching. After a wonderful patty-melt, a favorite weekend lunch at this spot, as I got up I really felt my shoulders ache. Getting up after a rest is always my stiffest moment and this was no exception. It occurred to me that perhaps I had made a mistake with the ride today. I continued through Santa Ysabel and Ramona, with its winding road down into the San Pasqual Valley past the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. From there, it was a short hop home to the barn with my added 100 miles on the odometer. It is now evening after a long ride and funny thing…I seem to have left my shoulder problem somewhere on the shoulder of the road.