So, I went to see a doctor & then worked on my bike

I have had this pain in my back for literally about six months. It's located somewhere between my shoulder blade and spine, although it's not spine related. It's more of a right arm-related pain, caused by who knows what. Whilst Googleing "back muscles" I came to the conclusion that the pain is generally centralized in the "rhomboideus major" region (pictured). God, I love medical illustrations!

Six months of this shit. I don't know how it started but it was damned uncomfortable at first. I was fine with it for a few months, it just felt sore and I'd ask for a massage every few days, which temporarily took care of the problem. When that was not as effective, I tried stretching and such. As of late, massages no longer work at all and OTC medicines hardly work. I started to become consistently grouchy and depressed because of the constant pain and lack of general usefulness. Lifting my anything, even a cell phone to check the time hurt, forget texting or making a phone call, or scratching the back of my head, throwing a piece of paper in the garbage, or anything that involved lifting or moving my right arm caused me pain. Very grumpy and substantially depressed. I stopped even using my right arm for anything, it basically became a useless appendage. And forget yawning! By the end of the day I'd be hurting enough but put yawning on top of that and it hurt unbearably for a few seconds when my chest expanded. I can't replicate the feeling though, I legitimately have to be yawning.

So, I went to see a doctor. I described my situation and he prescribed an anti-inflammatory and said if it didn't help in two weeks to come back.

That was about three days ago. The first time I took it, well, I got a little fucked up, but the pain went from a sort of a stabbing, sucky pain to more of a burning, slightly dulled pain. Now it's sort of a warmish pain, dulled, but still there most of the time. I think the pain is down about %55 to %65, leaving about 35% to 45% of the pain still there presently.

I also felt well enough to work on my road bike today, a 1984 Nishiki, which involved removing all of the parts to paint over the stock paint of the frame and fork. I also cleaned everything and put on new cables/housing, put on a different crank and rear derailleur, and tightened/half-assedly trued the front wheel. I spent nearly the entire day on it and nearly finished it. I need to replace the front tube, adjust the brakes, and adjust both derailleurs then I'm good to go.

I painted the frame flat white and the fork flat black, but only because I ran out of flat white and was way too lazy to go to the store. I wasn't sure about it at first but the black fork looks pretty good when it was all put together. I have flat black rims with black tires, black seat, black handlebar tape, black cable housing, and black water cage. Everything else is chrome. It looks great. But I'm not proud of myself yet, I need to adjust everything and take it for nice, long ride to be satisfied. I also got the new white paint dirty already with my greasy, black finger prints. Oh well!

Oh and all of this only made my back/shoulder situation slightly more uncomfortable. I'm just hoping work tomorrow doesn't create a bigger problem. I think I'll have to go back. When the pills run out I'm almost certain the problem will come back.

And on an awesome note, my blood pressure and heart rate was fantastic. Bicycling = awesome. One of my major goals currently is to start and finish a century ride. My current minor goal is to participate in at least one Critical Mass in Los Angeles.