Some Time Has Passed...

I’ve procrastinated making any updates here for a bit, as you can see by the nearly nine month gap between posts. Where to start? The summer was the busiest academic semester I’ve had in some time, with my two final regular guitar classes and my level 8 of guitar instruction. To summarize, it was a firehose of theory and sundry and I’m sure most of it has evaporated from the subsequent neglect. I took a break from playing after the end, ostensibly for a bit of palate cleansing and because I wanted to start working on a few lesson programs I had bought in the past. I ended up transcribing all of Troy Stetina’s “Total Picking Control” to Guitar Pro 8 (61 lessons) and learned a great deal more about how GP8 works and transcribing workflows in general. But, I wasn’t playing because I planned to jump headfirst into TPC once I finished.

As luck would have it, the day after I finished the transcription efforts (17 Dec 2025), I woke up with a particularly nasty flare up of my left shoulder/arm pain, a nasty little bugger that has been intermittently plagueing me for several years. This would end up changing my daily lifestyle more significantly than any other event since my retirement from the Army. For the first few weeks, the pain was severe and unrelenting to the point that all I could do was sit on the couch and watch YouTube videos in between attempts to use any mitigating strategies to dull the pain - pain relievers, topicals, heat, massage, etc. Nothing was really effectual at that point, and I even got a same day appointment with my pcm a week after it started. She gave me a steroid injection and prescribed a steroid burst along with a different nsaid from what I had been taking.

Now that several weeks have passed, I’m fairly sure the steroids just made me feel worse and did little to move the needle for the condition. During that appointment, my pcm also referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, who I’m due to see this coming Wednesday. The overall severity of the condition has improved, but the downward arc has been a pretty flat one. Even today, I woke up with shoulder pain and I can still feel the ache. I can’t say I’ve coped particularly well with this episode. I’ve essentially paused all of my creative activities due to the pain and its effect on my motivation. I’ve maintained my daily walks with the diggles, although we’ve had some winter storms that paused all outdoor activities for several days. I’ve had some okay days where I was motivated enough to walk on the treadmill, but I still haven’t risked running to any great degree because just the swinging of my arm is enough to aggravate the shoulder.

To elucidate, the pain feels neuropathic in nature and goes back probably seven or eight years. It previously would crop up with prolonged activities like practicing guitar or working at my desk when I would ignore early signs of fatigue and discomfort because I was focusing on a task. Eventually, pain would break through and I would take a break or reposition myself. This would normally solve the issue in short course, but I’ve had a few flare ups, including the Xmas 2023 episode that led to my first ER visit in thirty years (the symptoms spread into my chest and were suspicious for a cardiac event, although that workup was negative), and a more generalized moderate episode at the end of last summer. This summer episode was tied into a preceding illness that may have been my first ever COVID infection, although I was never tested. All this to say that the more typical pattern has been pain, somewhere around my left shoulder, but sometimes down the arm to the elbow, sometimes with numbness and tingling in the fingers/thumb, sometimes in the upper back/neck, sometimes with associated headaches. The pain can vary between burning, sharp, throbbing, or some combination thereof. Often the severity is unpredictable, although there are provocative factors like any sort of exertion or stretching of the shoulder past the comfortable range of motion.

This is already a dolorous dissertation of dullness, so I’ll leave off for now and plan on posting sooner about what else I’ve been doing in the interim. Sneak preview: nothing particularly productive, but I have finally cracked the code on souls games and have been spending most of my waking hours deep in the lands of Lordran and Drangleic (DS1 and DS2).

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

My late December medical misadventures had mostly resolved only to be replaced by dental shenanigans. I’ve had some long neglected issues that I put off because they weren’t painful and I didn’t want to fork over hundreds or more likely thousands of dollars for what was mostly just an annoyance.

Whelp, as in the past, once a nerve root gets fully exposed even the most stalwart would likely put pain reduction over pocketbook. I’ve had both a broken tooth and crown (on separate teeth) for several years, but within the last month I had a cavity in my right upper first bicuspid (I think) which revealed itself when a cute little portal opened up in the bottom. Portals can be useful things, especially if they go to magical kingdoms or take you planetside, but they are less desirable in one’s chompers.

I scheduled a dental exam with a new clinic (it was the previous clinic, Monarch, that had soured both my wife and I from going for so long), and at the time time of the exam I wasn’t yet in a great deal of pain. Fast forward to three days ago and the pain started ramping up. It got bad enough that it woke me up at midnight on Thursday/Friday and I contacted the clinic requesting a same day/walk in appointment.

The clinic is normally closed on Friday, and additionally, Dr. Nguyen who performs the root canals is supposed to be on maternity leave, but they were willing to come into the clinic and take care of my problem. The procedure went smoothly and my only discomfort was due to bladder distension (don’t drink the coffee, you’ll soil yourself) (if you know that reference you’re old too). I had essentially no dental or oral pain once I was numbed up.

Once the anesthesia started to wear off yesterday and into last night the pain came back and was almost the same severity although the quality of the pain had changed since the nerve had been removed. Now the pain was spread over several teeth and also affected my mucosa. My face has swollen up to the point it looks like I’ve got a big chew in. I just need to throw on my baseball uniform and commence to spittin’.

Nothing has really touched the pain except for warm compresses and some Orajel cream that I had same-dayed (totes a word) this morning. Unfortunately it only seems to last about an hour when the recommended dosing schedule is 6 hours. Dosing schedule be damned until this pain and swelling start to decline.

I hope the succession of medical to dental chicanery was just random chance and not a sign of a larger problem. Meaning, it’s not typical for me to have big flare ups when I have injuries or illness. The shoulder/chest whatever it was accelerated above and beyond any notable triggers. Maybe there was something there that no one including my various providers or myself have been able to sus out. Maybe my immune system is getting more persnickety as I get older. I hope not.

This dental episode isn’t too removed from previous, although the severity has been higher not to mention the facial swelling which I’ve not had in the past. It was noted that I had a few elevated inflammatory markers during the shoulder/chest extravaganza (ESR, CRP), but these are non-specific and don’t clarify the source. I’m curious if they would be similarly elevated during this dental episode. As often happens, the diagnostic studies raise more questions than they provide answers.

Hopefully this dental shindig will start winding down and I can return to the regularly scheduled programming. It’s ironic because I had made several upgrades and fixed multiple issues in both my video studio and drum rooms, but I’ve been unable to enjoy them fully due to the pain and discomfort.

I should also mention that our girls have been very sweet in noting my discomfort. They are always quick to realize when their humans are distressed or in pain, and they adjust their behavior. Instead of negotiating (begging, harassing, etc.) for treats, walks, or playtime, they typically just lay down somehere near us and give us companionship without bothering us otherwise. Even Nynaeve, who is by far the most insistent for playtime, etc. has been following her sister’s lead and just staying close without asking for anything. Of course Aeyong is perpetually on the spot to give help or comfort when I’m in pain. I mostly deal with it myself, but her willing assistance is always appreciated.

Repetitive Strain Injuries Can Go Smoke A Bowl

I’ve been dealing with some sort of lateral epicondylitis/peripheral nerve hybrid in my left elbow for several months now. I think it arose from the resumption of regular practice after the spring semester ear training downturn. I don’t remember any acute events, but as these things go it started to gradually rear its ugly head.

I’ve had point tenderness at the lateral epicondyle but there has also been this weird hot wire down the middle of my forearm sensation as well as a feeling that there was some sort of internal joint swelling or pressure in the elbow itself.

I’ve tried to cut back on my practice schedule, even going so far as taking several days off at time. Unfortunately, there are often seemingly trivial elbow movements in any ADLs that tweak the problem as well. Short of slinging the left arm and not using it, it’s almost unavoidable to not tweak it in some way several times a day.

Finger flexion against resistance is particularly bothersome, and so acoustic guitar and piano can be especially troubling. Despite this, I refuse to completely rest and let my skills atrophy, so I’ve just decided to work through the issue and try to apply some judicious work/rest scheduling. It does seem to be slowly improving, although it feels like it’s taking forever. I know I’ve been dealing with since June at least.