Well, I bitched so much about how much my shoulder hurts that my doc's nurse assistant finally agreed to schedule me for PT. As for exercise, my doc actually told me no strenuous exercise until he clears me - the only thing he allowed me to do is lift 2lb weights until I go for my follow up (which is this Wednesday). He said something about the potential for tearing internal stitches. He also doesn't want me doing anything that will overly stretch my neck in any direction because he doesn't want me stretching out the healing incision - he says that would elongate the scar.

Even when I try jogging with my dogs, it sometimes hurts my neck so until I get into physical therapy, I don't want to do myself more harm than good...

I'm also almost out of Lortab, though when I asked if they would call in a refill for me, the nurse assistant told me to just take 4 Ibuprofen (800mg) pills at a time instead. Well I already do that during the day just to manage the moderate pain so it's not making a dent on my acute pain in the evenings. So now I'm wondering what the highest dosage of Ibuprofen is that I can safely take... I know a lot of doctors are concerned with patients becoming addicted to pain medication but I think that if I was addicted, I would probably be taking the stuff all day long instead of saving it and using it ONLY when the pain is horribly unbearable. Still, I'm not sure how you explain this to the nurse without sounding like some sort of desperate junkie.

As for the lymphedema specialist - no, I haven't seen one or been referred to one. I'm not quite sure what that even is but I can probably infer by breaking down the word.

I will certainly ask about that when I see my doc on Wednesday...

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!!