Sanger, CAPeggy L says she is not positive that her shoulder pain pump has caused her shoulder injury, but she is sure that she has all the symptoms of a condition associated with the pump. At 64 years old she was injured and has since undergone a shoulder surgery to correct the problem. However, Peggy now faces at least one additional surgery and possibly 2, if the first does not go well.
"When I was 64—last Thanksgiving—I was riding my horse," Peggy says. "I have a small ranch with sheep and horses and I've always been a very active person. Anyhow, I was riding my horse and the horse spooked. I should have gotten off the horse and led her through the obstacles, but I was trying to train her to be a good trail horse. She spooked and sidestepped and knocked me into a tree. I fell off the saddle, over her tail and down. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
"People kept telling me I was okay, I was just old. Four months later, when I wasn't better, they did x-rays and discovered that I had a broken back, a compressed fracture of my arm and a broken shoulder. I couldn't do anything this past year because I was trying to get through this. I had surgery on my arm, which fixed it, and had cement put into my back. With time, my back was better.
"I went in for shoulder surgery. I thought my clavicle was broken, but it turned out it was my acromion. They were going to do an arthroscope on my shoulder, but they had some trouble so they had to do an open surgery on my shoulder. After the surgery, they gave me a pain pump. I had it in for a couple of days—it didn't seem to make much difference—and then they took it out.
"After about 4 months [the shoulder surgery was done in July 2008], I wasn't getting any better. I had been put in physical therapy but the therapist gave up on me, saying he couldn't help me. Now, doctors say I have to have more surgery and, if that surgery does not work, then I may need a shoulder replacement.
"I only discovered the problems with the pain pumps on the Internet. My doctor does not diagnose me. All he says is that the space between the top of my humeral head and my acromion is now about 4 mms, when before my surgery it was about 7 mms. I've lost space between the humeral head and the acromion, but the doctor won't say that I have less cartilage. He says I have a rare condition and that he has only seen it 4 times in his career but any other doctor would not see it in a lifetime.
"I haven't been on a horse since that incident. I can't even lift my arm high enough to get in the saddle. It clicks all the time. I can only raise the arm half way, and that hurts. I have every symptom of PAGCL [post arthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis], but the doctor won't give me a diagnosis.
"It's the little things that bother me. I can't reach up and get a branch to prune a tree, which I like to do. I hired someone to do it, and that costs money. I can't get down and scrub the floor and I can't unload dishes. It's hard for me to wash my hair; I have to do it with one hand. I've been told I will probably be like this for life, I won't regain all of my shoulder use, but I want to wash my hair with 2 hands again. I'm really upset.