Sprained elbow
On Monday, when we were visiting mother, I noticed that she wasn’t using her right arm much and was in fact keeping it straight. I tried bending it at the elbow and it felt stiff.
Given that her speech was affected recently (Dr R had confirmed she’d suffered from a minor stroke), I worried that the stiff right arm may be due to the same reason. A while later, I remembered she had fractured her right shoulder a few years ago, which meant the stiff right arm might be due to the old injury and not the stroke.
Yesterday, I made an appointment with Mrs C, a Chinese lady who specialises in “tit tar” (literally translated: iron hit, or bone setting). Ever since my sister’s mother-in-law fell and fractured the small of her back and went to see this lady’s late husband, we’ve all been her customers at some point or other.
She agreed to come to GT Heritage to see mother, provided I went to fetch her. I was more than happy to do so.
At first, I thought I’d be on my own going to fetch Mrs C, but when I saw my sister in the evening, she asked if I wanted her to come along. I was more than happy she asked.
So, off we went, after dinner, to Mrs C’s house and onto GT Heritage.
It turned out to be a sprained right elbow and not her shoulder. Mrs C got to work, massaging oil around the affected area. At one point, mother was holding onto my hand when Mrs C lightly squeezed the elbow. Unable to call out in pain, mother instead tightened her hold on my hand, which was how I knew she’d felt the pain.
After a series of rubs, Mrs C gently bent the elbow and brought mother’s fingers to touch her left shoulder. There was no more tightening of her hand on mine. The massage had worked.
So relieved …
Side note: when Mrs C got into the car, she asked if I’d started working. My sister laughed and told her “of course!”
