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Bad news: no more painting
14 years ago
. . . for a while, at least, as soon as I finish up these last few commissions.
Here's the story, in case you aren't breathlessly following my fascinating life: about a year and a half ago, I broke my collarbone. About a month later, my then-boss accidentally dropped a box full of umbrella poles on me, and re-broke it. And about a month after that, he dropped a 20-foot ladder on it, and broke it again.
Well, the bone eventually healed up, but since then I've had a constant dull, burning ache in that shoulder which occasionally flares up into screaming agony that spreads out into the chest, weakness in my arm (I can hardly lift it above shoulder level), and muscle spasms that get so bad my hand is jerked around. To sum up: not fun. It gets worse when I overuse the arm, and my current job requires a lot of lifting.
This is, of course, my right arm. My drawing arm. So you can see the problem. I can still draw, but you may have noticed I've slowed down quite a bit. A couple hours of drawing leaves me almost completely unable to use my right arm.
I've done some research into this - starting with the anatomy books I keep around for drawing reference, amusingly enough - and while I'm not a doctor I'm fairly sure the problem is an entrapped nerve, which is a common complication of a fractured clavicle. It won't get better on its own. Good news: this can be fixed with surgery. Bad news: I don't have health insurance or much money in the bank. I'll get the surgery at some point, but it won't be for a while, and I think it's probably better to lay off on the painting as much as possible.
I can't stop entirely, because I would go INSANE. But if you're one of my watchers and you wonder why there's almost no new stuff, it's not because I'm dead or I hate everybody or I'm leaving forevah. I'm just poor and borked. I'll still be around looking at stuff and cheering you on, but I'm gonna have to bench myself for a while. So it goes, so it goes.
Here's the story, in case you aren't breathlessly following my fascinating life: about a year and a half ago, I broke my collarbone. About a month later, my then-boss accidentally dropped a box full of umbrella poles on me, and re-broke it. And about a month after that, he dropped a 20-foot ladder on it, and broke it again.
Well, the bone eventually healed up, but since then I've had a constant dull, burning ache in that shoulder which occasionally flares up into screaming agony that spreads out into the chest, weakness in my arm (I can hardly lift it above shoulder level), and muscle spasms that get so bad my hand is jerked around. To sum up: not fun. It gets worse when I overuse the arm, and my current job requires a lot of lifting.
This is, of course, my right arm. My drawing arm. So you can see the problem. I can still draw, but you may have noticed I've slowed down quite a bit. A couple hours of drawing leaves me almost completely unable to use my right arm.
I've done some research into this - starting with the anatomy books I keep around for drawing reference, amusingly enough - and while I'm not a doctor I'm fairly sure the problem is an entrapped nerve, which is a common complication of a fractured clavicle. It won't get better on its own. Good news: this can be fixed with surgery. Bad news: I don't have health insurance or much money in the bank. I'll get the surgery at some point, but it won't be for a while, and I think it's probably better to lay off on the painting as much as possible.
I can't stop entirely, because I would go INSANE. But if you're one of my watchers and you wonder why there's almost no new stuff, it's not because I'm dead or I hate everybody or I'm leaving forevah. I'm just poor and borked. I'll still be around looking at stuff and cheering you on, but I'm gonna have to bench myself for a while. So it goes, so it goes.
Get better soon, not for art's sake, but for your health's own sake!
Anyway, given that it's not a continuous problem, you could actually benefit from (more?) physical therapy, rather than surgery. Training the muscles to move around or even work the nerves back into place, as well as providing support, usually gets suggested before surgery in those cases.
I get severe nerve impingement from posture alone. Just having one leg a tiny fraction shorter than the other ended up actually causing me injury and I needed months of physical therapy. It's now a permanent, recurring issue. When it happens, though, aside from the deep vein thrombosis I had, there's just no pain like it; indescribable, burning, searing, tearing, incapacitating and paralyzing (in my case, usually my left arm). I've since learned how to maneuver when I feel the first signs, and then I take a few days of doing exercises to pop everything back and relax the muscles. I'm always afraid of when it'll happen next.
You might be able to find some online tips on how to at least improve it marginally until the inflammation stops, at least until you can have it looked at properly. Obviously, though, this could get worse with doing unintentionally 'wrong' things, so here's hoping you can beg someone to have mercy and examine it. :(
Out of curiosity, do you have a ballpark for how much your surgery would cost?
I hope you've at least got some good pain management medication :C
Unless you signed something saying you wouldn't sue, they should consider only the cost of fixing it the best option.
I, too, join the chorus in hoping you get the money for the surgery sooner rather than later! That's gotta be painful occasionally even during non-painting activities. ;.;