Hey,

I had originally wanted to make this journal a couple weeks back, but beyond some complications I'll mention below and a holiday weekend, it's been pushed back to today. I don't mean to keep people waiting for updates since there's so much work I still owe to very patient folks.

Soon after my last journal, I was finally able to see the physiotherapist that I had been in contact with and the first session brought some interesting insight into what may be causing my shoulder blade and arm issues. Beyond some arthritis and a small bone spur in my shoulder, in the neck, there are muscles that attach to the shoulder and shoulder blade called the scalene muscles, they run from the neck in the midst of various nerves and blood vessels. If those muscles are tight and potentially inflamed, there's a good possibility that they are giving less room for those nerves and such to run through, causing a multitude of issues. They are also very involved in the manipulation of the arm and shoulder, so finesse work like drawing taxes them.

This had never come up from any other therapist/doctor I'd ever seen, so this was very interesting indeed. My body may have also proven the entire theory correct as a two days after my second session a couple weeks ago, I was hit with pretty much every symptom and pain I had ever experienced all at once, taking me out for almost a whole weekend. My neck, my shoulder, my upper back, everything was tight, tense, and in incredible pain. The worst part was, was that I didn't have another session for over a week, but things subsided and I was able to get some more info earlier this week into why that happened. Essentially, I'm not only fighting my body in my recovery, but also my own brain. Because no one had considered these muscles as an issue, they haven't been tampered with in over a decade. My neck has been keeping those muscles tight as a way to protect them, and now that they are being tampered with, my brain is sending pain signals to try and dissuade me from doing so, thus that collection of issues all at once a couple weekends back.

With all that info, what does that mean for my recovery? Essentially, fixing the tightness and allowing my body to allow those muscles (neck/shoulder blade/arm) to work again without pain is step one, then slowly increasing their work capacity and proving to my subconscious that any fatigue is a good thing, and not a reason to protect them is step two. In theory, my physio mentioned that eventually I'll be able to potentially draw for hours at a time with enough work, so I'm hopeful even if the road to get there still seems long.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding with all this. I hope that all of this shows my desire to get back to drawing, and I'm not merely sitting on my hands hoping things will get better. Let me know if things seem unclear or if you have any questions, I may have missed some details as there are a lot.

Thanks,
Oter