My Shoulders Hurt

The Atlas from Greek mythology, carried something very heavy, possibly the weight of the world, on his shoulders. This was a punishment that came down from Zeus, king of the Gods. Atlas' punishment was meant to last forever. It is often said that Atlas carried the world on his shoulders, but it might be more accurate to say he carried the heavens on his shoulder. It presents an interesting, insoluble puzzle to try to figure out where Atlas would have to stand to carry the world on his shoulders.

For the last two weeks, both of my shoulder rotator cuffs have "gone out."  The rotator cuff is made up of the muscles and tendons in your shoulder. These muscles and tendons connect your upper arm bone with your shoulder blade. They also help hold the ball of your upper arm bone firmly in your shoulder socket. The combination results in the greatest range of motion of any joint in your body.

Needless to say the range of motion has been quite limited and the pain encountered when going through daily life activities has increased. Vicodin helps me sleep. Massage and acupuncture will help over time. Exercises and not stressing the cuffs will help. But meanwhile, ouch!

When this happened I asked myself, "Why?" I did not injure myself or do any unusual heavy lifting. Maybe I slept wrong? I do believe that a person can bring an illness on himself but I have been doing so well with carrying both the weight of Gregory and my life, that I would like to think that I have not become jealous of Atlas.

Everything I have been doing in the last two weeks takes so much more energy, there is more that I cannot do, the fact that with Gregory's situation I have to "do it all" has become painfully apparent. Literally and figuratively. Atlas can carry the weight of the world (or the heavens) on his shoulders, all I ask for is to carry it for the two of us.