This is a summary of how my injury impacts everyday life

Starting with sleep, this is an all the time thing. I seem to wake up every couple of hours to change positions. This is generally from my back to one side or the other. If I am on my back too long, my right arm starts to go numb. If I am on my left side too long, my right arm also goes numb. This numbness starts in the hand. It can be both my thumb and index finger first, or from my ring finger to little finger. Usually, this is only a few times per month. But recently, I have had nights where I woke up three times in the same night with numbness. At times I wake up with pain in my shoulder blade area, or pain in my lower arm.

Upon waking up for good, and getting dressed, I have to be aware at all times that my right arm acts like it is dislocated. This is especially true when putting on a pullover type shirt. I have to treat my right arm with care at all times, or it reminds me. My right shoulder pops and clicks at most movements doing this, and pulling up pants or other clothes.

Sneezing and/or coughing if I am not braced for it can lead to jabs of pain in my right scapula, and leave me with pain radiating down my right arm. Luckily, my coughs have been of short duration recently. Sneezing is another matter. Certain times of the year I tend to sneeze more than others, and each one of these can recoil in my shoulder causing pain no matter how I try to brace for them.

I have to bend my head down to wash my hair. I sometimes have trouble holding my toothbrush tightly enough, depending on the design of the handle. Lifting my arm too high causes pain on the shoulder. Because of this, I tend to do these activities very quickly to minimize the arm loads.

As with all things I have to do with my right hand, I tend to drop things if I am not constantly mindful that my overall grip strength and strength in my right arm is impacted by this.

Preparations of things in the kitchen are impacted. This is especially important. I have trouble with using knives to slice anything. I have to use my left arm to reach anything on higher shelves. For the things I can do right handed, I still have to use my left hand to provide support. This is true of most things. One example is use of a coffee maker. I can barely hold the full pot long enough to use it, and have to support my right arm to steady it, or it will shake so much that I will spill or drop the entire thing. The only way I can hold a full pot is to steady my upper arm (from shoulder to elbow) against the side of my body. I cannot extend or lift the pot without support of my left hand. Even with the support, my wrist aches at this time. I have to ask for help cutting things with a knife because of pain in my right wrist from having to grasp the knife.

Eating is also impacted. I have been known to have the utensil slip out of my right hand during use.

Completing odd jobs around the house is impacted. If I can keep my upper arm tight against my right side, I am better off, but how many jobs around the house allow that? As an example, I had to change a component in part of our alarm system. This required use of my right arm extended to the wall on which the item was mounted, flipping off a cover, removing two screws and a circuit board, replacing the new circuit board, putting the screws back, and putting the cover back on. In the old pre shoulder injury days, this would have been a ten minute job. This time took me 30 minutes, and at the end my upper shoulder and neck was tense and sore, and I had a headache. The reason I think was that loss of my right hand dexterity caused extra time to be spent fumbling at this simple task. This caused me to keep my arm extended longer than I was able to without discomfort.

Projecting this to other jobs around the house, I have to think of ways to do everything with minimal right arm involvement. And, with all things, I have to constantly be aware of how I can do anything without dependence on my right arm, and hand. I have a three pound dumb-bell that I try to lift right handed. Using my biceps with arm close to my side may work for that, but if I try to lift it by extending my arm away from my body, I have trouble. Jobs requiring this type of movement or extension are hard to accomplish.

Shopping, I also have troubles reaching items on higher shelves. I use my left arm for that. Sometimes I forget my right hand is not as strong as it used to be. I grab a carton of orange juice. Next thing I know, it is on the floor.

Driving is impacted. Sitting against a high seat with a winged scapula tends to make me sit a bit lop-sided. Sitting in any chair with a back can also cause this. It tends to make me twisted no matter how I sit, and I think this adjustment may be one extra cause of my headaches. I may not get the headache until later, but sitting while having arms extended to do simple tasks can lead to headaches.

Steering while driving is something I tend to do more left handed than before. I try to keep my right hand on the wheel, but it is not the one I depend on to do hard steering, like getting in and out of parking places, etc. Without power steering, I would be unable to drive safely at this point. Using my right arm leads to pain at shoulder. Looking over my right shoulder causes pain in my neck. Quick movements driving lead to jabs of pain.

All considered, there is not one thing I do daily in which I can take it for granted that my right arm and hand will function anywhere near a level prior to injury. If I forget, I drop things. It is a constant reminder of my injury and how I must adapt to do even simple tasks.