It's been six months since the growing pain in my left shoulder rendered it useless. Now, after assiduously grinding through the stetching [UPDATE: All typos and other errors should be attributed to my shoulder problem, of course] regimen prescribed by my osteopath, I can actually lift my unweighted left arm above horizontal! (That is, if I lift it to the front; to the side, I'm still about 30 degrees below horizontal.)
This about a year after I'd recovered from the same syndrome in my right shoulder.
Apparently my skeletal structure is such that a band of my rotator cuff tends to rub against the bone, causing the muscle to get inflamed and (frequently) me to shout out various obscenities in reaction to the excruciating pain. (Secondary complaint: This has also made my vocal folds tender.)
Anyway, I was feeling modestly heroic about bringing about my own recovery yet a second* time when I read about Diane Michele Yap's encounter with osteosclerotic myeloma (which condition you apparently get as part of a marvelous package deal know as POEMS).
Turns out, I am pretty much a wuss.
* On the positive side, the second round on the opposite side gave the muscle atrophy on both sides a chance to even out.
