Picking a fight?

MARIE: Have I mentioned that I’ve had a sore shoulder for a few months? It seems more than a little peevish to talk about my minor inconvenience in view of Jon’s rather larger troubles. But as I have discovered that one stems directly from the other, I’ve given myself a license to whine.

My right shoulder has been bothering me since summer, really, a nuisance when I wanted to reach, push or carry, and with reduced range of movement – to the point where Jon not so grudgingly had to take on responsibility for bra removal each night. The poor man, he has to do everything!

Our GP eventually sent me to an orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed a ‘frozen’ right shoulder and gave me a remarkably unpleasant injection of steroids to deal with the semi-permanent infection in the joint, then directed me to the physiotherapist for follow-up. As the right shoulder slowly got better, the left one felt neglected and started to act up, so had to be given the same treatment. Both are now on the mend, though I expect to get to know my physiotherapist considerably better before I’m back to normal.

So what’s that got to do with Parkinson’s? Well, the surgeon and the physio agree that my troubles almost certainly stem from helping Jon – the firm hand under his arm when we’re out walking, pulling and pushing when he needs a hand to get up, and standing in awkward positions when helping him dress and undress. It’s also quite likely that the mental stress of dealing with the dementia diagnosis isn’t helping – I have a history of stress settling in my shoulders.

Spouses of chronically ill people are generally prone to suffer from more health problems than those with well spouses. That’s related to stress (both physical and mental) and to a tendency to forget to look after yourself properly because you’re too busy looking after someone else. In my case the mental stress of dealing with the new diagnosis is unavoidable BUT I feel that the physical stresses could have been easily avoided if someone had bothered to teach me how to help Jon without hurting myself.

As you know, the council now employs me as “home care help” to look after Jon (don’t get too excited, this is in lieu of the carer’s allowance you have in the UK and is about as generous). However, the contract comes with no training whatsoever. All the “professional” home care staff go through careful training, particularly about helping with transfers (i.e. shifting position, such as standing up, sitting down, turning over in bed) because it’s that’s a high-risk area with such work.

Does that make my shoulder an occupational injury, and my employer culpable for not training me in safe working methods? Not this time, perhaps, because the shoulder problem started before my contract, but maybe next time? If I’m up to it, I might make a glorious fuss if it happens again. One needs to pick one’s fights carefully, and that strikes me as one with potential mileage way beyond myself and, indeed, Parkinson’s.