No shoulder pain, the brown socks are gone

Having a dislocated shoulder for the last two years has been aggravating. Not only could I not use my arm well, everything I tried to do was excruciating. The neurologist told me in March that it was a symptom of FSH muscular dystrophy, and it may well be, but he also told me I could not regain the muscles in that arm.

Ten days after I started AP, I could feel the muscles behind my right shoulder blade. They felt weak, but like a muscles does when it is sore. I asked Rachel, my physical therapist to help me with some exercises to try to bring those muscles back, and about two weeks ago, they finally got strong enough to hold my shoulder joint in place. My arm is no longer out of joint. I can't lift it, because my shoulder blade is still lose, but I feel 'sore muscles' underneath it and I am working those.

Today, the shoulder muscles are actually STRONG, strong enough that I can pick up and carry my own suitcase and there is no discomfort.

Personally, I think that the scleroedema has caused the muscles in the shoulder joint to swell and push the joint apart, just as it had in my finger joints. As the A
P has caused the inflammation in the joint to die down, my muscles have been able to recover, and I have been able to get good instruction on how to work the specific muscles that need to be worked. The recovery of those muscles has taken nearly three months -- not a slow process, but I am both astonished and grateful for the health of my shoulders.

On a really minor note, the 'brown socks' the hyperpigmentation on my feet have gone away. It really started about two weeks ago, and now has faded to the point of being almost imperceptible. I had my husband check the brown spots on my back, which, of course, I can't see. He says that I only have two left -- one on my right shoulder blade (Where I still have muscle weakness!), and on my neck (Where I still have muscle weakness!!!)

I am thinking the brown spots are somehow connected to the muscle weakness.

My neck is getting better. The left side is still weak - the right side is holding up it's end of the bargin.
I am working the muscles in my neck in various ways trying to get over that final obstacle of weakness. Sometimes I think that as the AP is effective on the underlying bacterial infection, that is the point at which recovery of the muscle becomes possible and not before. I am resolved that as the muscle is allowed to become healthier by the AP, I will be committed to keeping the muscles trying to work every day -- so, when the muscles are ready, they get the encouragement they need.

The best part, is that I can cuddle with my husband. My shoulders were too painful for me to lay on my side at all. Restoring the intimacy and closeness of our marriage after months of my illness is extraordinary. He has been a rock, kind and long-suffering in the darkest hours of fear, pain and anger at my illness. It is 6 am, as I write, and he is going out after Propel because I have a blood draw this morning. He is quite a man.