Saw the doctor at 10:45 yesterday. He, being a very wonderful doctor, agreed that I was obviously in pain, listened to the history of that shoulder, and decided to start with an x-ray.

Holding my left arm down by my side with my palm facing out hurt pretty good, but it got a good picture. He called me out to show it to me, and it seems that the ball of my left shoulder is higher in the joint than it really should be, and that there's definitely signs of arthritis in the joint. So he orders an MRI, which I get scheduled for later on the same day.

I have had an MRI before, so I thought I knew what I was getting in to. The one for my lower back pain was uncomfortable, but nothing bad, so I figured I'd be OK.

Um, no.

Remember, I said above that turning my arm hurt my shoulder. I had to lay on my back, shoulder held rigid in place, with my arm straight out by my side, for about 20 minutes. I am certain there is something wrong in there, because the pain was very nearly unbearable. When they finally pulled me out and sat me up, I literally could not breathe for pain. I carefully got dressed, went up to the hospital lobby, and called my local Knight in Shining Armor, aka Dad. There was absolutely no way I was driving my stick shift home.

He came and got me within 10 minutes, bought the Vicodin at the Bi-Lo for me, took me home, fed my cats, started my dishwasher, and took out the trash. I took 1 pill about 6pm, another a little after 7pm, then 2 at 10:30pm when I thought I was going to scream.

I'm back to regular pain now, so at least I feel like I can go to work. Why work? Because I started January 1 with 80 hours of sick leave, and now only have 8 hours left. :-p Besides, someone has to do the work...