Update of my Health Problem

Thank you for all of you who have been asking me about what was going on with my arm problem, I’m very sure that everyone agrees that it feels so good when you feel you’re not forgotten and people cares for you.

I started with something positive for this journal, but the negative part has been how my mood has been, this has been very tough and difficult for me. I needed to be very honest with a friend when he asked me “but are you emotionally alright or how are you dealing with that?” and I answered “I’m not, but I pretend I am”. But I’m working very hard and against many things to change the “pretending to be” to “having mental peace”.

This has been emotionally tough to me, being unable to draw is of course a big thing, being that it’s the thing I love the most to do in my life; but the fact that I’m unable to do many more things that I love to do, makes me sad and from time to time it frustrates me and make me very down. Things like swimming, biking and fursuiting are things that I proved I’m unable to do currently. And I had to stop temporarily at practicing to draw with my left hand, I can keep practice little by little later but for now, since it is the only hand that I can use for most of things, I’ve been forcing it to work more than it was used to, so it has been hurting as well, but of course not the same way, it just feels tired, and definitely I don’t want to force it to do even more things like drawing, I don’t want to have pain on both hands.

Quick summary

I got diagnosed with “Pronator Teres Syndrome”, and I’ve been unable to draw. I’ve been treating my problem with several doctors and I was taking physiotherapies. It is not the same than Carpal Tunnel, but some of the symptoms are similar, it’s just that the problem is from my forearm and not from the wrist.

But if you want to read further about it, I had told it on my previous journal:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/updates-about-82254478

What doctors have told me recently?

After many physiotherapies, my arm and forearm started hurting than never before, something that worried me a lot, and I had to tell this to my physiotherapist, which leaded me with a Algologist (a type of speciality I had no idea it existed).

But just before I called to make an appointment with this new specialist, I received a call by my radiologist (just seconds before I called for the appointment, it was like he knew I was about to call). This radiologist was the one who checked me a month ago and who said my traumatologist may be wrong and I didn’t need a surgery as this first specialist was suggesting, and he was the one who leaded me with the physiotherapist. He called me because he wanted to check my arm again to make an evaluation of my arm before visiting the algologist, so I went, he checked me with an ultrasound again, and he told me my nerves had stopped having a tear and now they were stretching inside, so in other words, they were healing, but there is a spasm on my muscles that were preventing my nerves to accommodate easily, but he brought me hopes telling me that this was like the end of the path of my problem, that I was about to get better again. And he recommended me to, indeed, visit the algologist, so he knew, with this new test he was doing and the previous one, what was the problem, how was the progress, and he would know what to do. Also he did this new test for free, he was really worrying about my problem and he was interested to follow my case, so he did that just for cool.

The next day I had an appointment with the algologist, it was indeed a lot of progress and a lot of advance before hand that I was bringing all the information, all the tests, all the story behind my arm, and everything, it took me around 30 minutes to tell him absolutely everything. He checked me again inside my arm with ultrasound and he got exactly on the same conclusion than the radiologist. So he injected me medical botox in my wrist, he told me that would break the spasm and release my nerves, plus a new treatment with pills. Next week he will check again how my body and my muscles reacted with this injections so he can determinate if he will inject me more on the other side of the arm, to keep helping my arm to heal.

He gave me new hopes, as well as the radiologist, telling me that my problem is on its way out, that it is about to have an end, that he gives it around 3 weeks to heal completely, but of course I will need more physiotherapies after it, since my arm will be so weak after months of barely using it. But I’ll be back to draw again. I really hope so, I almost joy cried when he told me that, because this has been affecting me a really lot not only on my job but also emotionally, as I had said previously.

Conclusion

I have faith that the last two doctors are right and I’m about to go out. I’m also believing it because, despite it still hurts, especially at nights, it doesn’t hurt as much as last week before visiting the algologist, that it was hurting more than ever and I started being so negative about my progress on this. So, it is healing, little by little.

I’m telling about this as well to my fellow artists because it’s something I don’t wish to anyone and I really hope nobody gets to suffer. Please, give yourself breaks, don’t overwork for so many hours, if it starts hurting, stop for the day despite deadlines are right there, your health is more important than any deadline or project.

Stress and anxiety is also a big deal to get these kind of problems, but it is really hard nowadays to be on peace and don’t get anxiety attacks or over stress. Remember that we can’t control situations nor thoughts, but we can control our emotions, it’s hard but it is possible. I recommend highly meditation, but it is not the only way, there are many ways to help yourself not to stress, like physical activity, going out with friends, breaking routines…

Sometimes we think there is no way out, but any bad time teach us to grow up as persons and it is always temporary, when we least expect it, it's gone.

Maybe you’re tired to read this by me but it’s something that I wouldn’t feel okay if I don’t mention it, because it’s something that I have it very present: Thank you to all of you for your support, understanding and love. Without you this situation would be many more times worse and I don’t know how I would have survived for all these months

I can’t wait for the time I’m back to draw again, and for sure when I do, I will slow down my working pace. But I’m sure that I will enjoy to do it more than ever.

Paco.