Swollen Shoulder

Thanksgiving weekend proved to be uneventful, just the way we like it. Mike's aide was not in alot (due to the holiday and the death of a friend), so I got to spend more time with Mike. It was hard to do when so much other work had to get done, but true to form, I looked at it as a gift. I would probably have been running all over, taking time here and there to be with Mike, but this situation "forced" (I say that in the most special of ways) me to spend much more time with him. Special time that I will never get back, so for that I am thankful.

Last night though, our uneventfulness came to an end. As I always do when I get home, I go over to Mike and hug and kiss him. He's lost enough weight that his shoulders and back are very boney. Last night though, I noticed that his one shoulder was swollen. Right in front of his left shoulder blade, it looked as though someone cut a tennis ball in half and placed it under his skin.

Today I will be trying to get an answer as to what that is about. Is it an infection? Could we have pulled his shoulder out of it's socket when maneuvering him? (a thought I don't even want to imagine) Could it be arthritis? All I know is that he didn't move his arm at all last night and he seems to be uncomfortable. I will be calling my "friends" at hospice to see what they recommend. My fear is that they will tell me to take him to the hospital. He would most likely be there ALL DAY which would mean, no drinking, no medicine, no food. If Mike goes one day without his allotted nutrition, it could be a disaster - that's how fragile he is. I hope they will be able to send a doctor over first to evaluate it. We'll see what happens and I will let everyone know.

UPDATE: The hospice nurse came this morning, but as I expected, Mike's shoulder was no longer "as swollen". I took pictures last night because I had a feeling that would happen. Quite often, something will be amiss with Mike, then as fast as it came, it's gone. She said that maybe his shoulder was dislocated -the ligaments and tendons are fragile and since he's not mobile, they become atrophied. Maybe sometime during the night, it "went back into place", but he didn't move an inch last night, so I'm not sure how that could happen. She told me what to look for in case of an infection. Otherwise, he seems to be doing OK.