Day 144

Not much to say about the hike today. Wizard gave me a couple Aleve pills that aren’t the PM kind I have. I took those in the morning but the pain was still killing me. I hiked with Spokes and it was great to have someone to talk with and try to keep my mind off of my shoulder. Tough to do but I appreciate having the company. We were lucky to talk with another hiker at the road that had a shuttle guy picking him up and didn’t mind taking us into Manchester Center. Once there, I went straight to the hotel in town, a Hilton property. I knew it was going to be stupid expensive and it requested I pay for 2 days since it’s a weekend. Crazy small tourist towns! I did it anyway because I was miserable and wanted to shower before heading to the medical center. The only clinic here is “out of network” for ALL insurance companies so I cannot wait to see what that bill comes out to be. I was really impressed with how long the doctor sat there with me and even brought out a book with muscle diagrams to explain what was going on. The inflammation is my subdeltoid bursa. He did not want to give me a steroid shot as his concern is I could have an adverse reaction that could cause more swelling and then I’d be wrecked. He would require me to stay put for around 5 days if he gave me a shot and he knows I won’t do that. So the decision was to give me steroid pills for 10 days. Also he wanted me to have this seriously strong ointment for pain, a super strength amount in a tiny tube so it wouldn’t be too heavy for me to worry about carrying. Unfortunately, it’s $130 a bottle, insurance wouldn’t cover it and the pharmacy didn’t have any in stock anyway. I am limited to a $22 bottle of cream for arthritis instead, that insurance won’t cover either. The last prescription is something I’m happy to do if I can figure out how to do it well; eat more calories and often. He says the ammonia smell in my clothes is me burning my own muscle to fuel my energy output. My shoulder cannot heal or build strength if I’m burning up the muscle. I have to be eating at least every 3 hours. Bottom line: I need to figure out denser calorie foods and carry as much as I can and be eating as often as I can while on trail. I’m happy to eat everything in sight in town but I’ll need to figure out more options on trail. He showed me a protein bar that’s very small but still 325 calories each. I’ll grab a bunch of those and try them out. I’m going to rest tonight and tomorrow on my “forced by hotel requirement and doctor demand” zero, I’ll go to the outfitter and try to find the smallest pack I can find that my gear fits in and feels comfortable wearing with my new body type and go from there. Oh, I finally got weighed again and I am at a 30 lbs loss from where I started.