I woke up two days ago with some pain in my right shoulder. I can't pin-point whether it's muscular or a pinched nerve. I'm leaning towards muscular because it hurts with range of motion movement. The worst pain is when I'm reaching across my chest and lifting my arm up and trying to touch my back. It was a pain (literally) to take off my scrub top today after work.
Growing up with a family of nurses, I've heard numerous body pain stories. From back pain to shoulder pain to feet pain.... you name it, a nurse somewhere hurts there! LOL. I don't know if the sore shoulder is because I slept on it wrong or pulled it during work, but it hurts. I'm only 25 and don't want to disable myself so early in life. My mom's warnings of "You only hurt your back once" and stress of proper body mechanics keeps coming to mind.
I know I've probably taken my body and youth for granted in the past, but this new pain has made the lightbulb go off. Bodily injuries can go hand in hand with nursing if you don't take care of yourself. We turn obese, immobile patients in bed. We wheel 300+lbs people in wheelchairs. We push beds that weigh twice our size. We run, jump, bend, and do cartwheels down the hall! HAHAHA. Okay, scratch the cartwheels, but many nurses have battle wounds and scars from years of physical labor. I really need to start taking better care of myself and watching out for my body... or else I might find myself in the wheelchair rather than the one pushing it :P
I know!! I am one tiny Asian too... I felt some strain trying to move patients :'( even with help of others. I feel so helpless when I can't help these obese patients up. I don't know if I can work in imcu. Im gonna check out wound care on friday. Take care of yourself. We still got lots of years to look forward to!
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