Very nice write-up, marti8a. You have some pictures there that I hadn't seen, as closely as I (and a number of us), have followed Ms Goose's amazing work.

I miss my regular Mama Goose fix, and hope she comes back soon with more progress notes.

What's next on your project list mama_goose?

Thank you again, Marti, for the lovely write-up. And thank you all for thinking about me.

I mentioned at the end of my kitchen thread, that I'd soon be starting on the DR. That entailed moving some bookshelves upstairs, then moving the heavy pie safes from the DR into the bedroom. At the same time I was trying to get flooring down in the new guest room (upstairs), so that the bookshelves could be built in on one wall. Of course, the flooring (laminate planks), had to be carried upstairs, and even though my daughters were helping me move and carry, I developed tendonitis in my left shoulder. Which became adhesive capsulitis, or frozen shoulder.

Turns out I am the poster child for frozen shoulder--female, 50's, menopausal, and stressed. My father was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and AC is more common in diabetics, so I've had my blood sugar checked. No problems there, although that's something that I'll need to watch for as I get older.

I was going to post about my shoulder problem on the other side, but it's not really OT, because it's keeping me from working on any of my DIY projects. I've had a cortisone injection, and started stretching exercises, which I hate, but I have only 50-75% range of motion at this time, and still have some pain when using my arm.

But, before my arm became too painful and stiff to use, I laid the flooring in the guest room alcove (about 1/3 of the total floor space), and hung, finished, and painted the sheet rock in the alcove, and painted the ceiling. I need to re-work the bookcases to fit under the windows, then I plan to paint them with the off-white paint left over from the kitchen.

I also managed to strip the wallpaper from the DR, and my daughter and I pulled the upper from the second vintage cabinet into the LR, so that I can start working on it when I'm able. It's been in there for two months, and we've become very good at ignoring it.

I've been very discouraged about not being able to work on the house, so marti's blog post was a welcome shot in the arm. (heh--no pun intended!)

LOL about the shot in the arm.

I need to thank you for letting me post that. I haven't had anything worth posting in a long time. And it inspired me to take another look at my countertops and I had one of those slap-my-forehead moments when I thought of something - maybe I can't find some lab tops like you did, but what about buying new ones? So I looked and there are places to have them custom made. Who woulda thunk it? AND! This is the best part - I can get them with integrated backsplash. So that eases my mind of future water problems.

You can also get sinks made from the same material, and get a marine edge on the counters, to keep liquids from dripping.

Colors

Thanks for that link. I didn't find it before. I'm not crazy about the resin sink. I think I still prefer the stainless.

That's a lot of work you got done.

Do you kids still at home or do they just come over to help out?

"I love the fact that she did this amazing work, but I love the comfort factor in her kitchen"

my feelings exactly on her kitchen!

if I did a spice shelf it'd probably about 8" long - for my 8 jars of spices. I'm always shocked at the spices some have that fill up a whole drawer!

marti - a shelf for those bowls would be a great break up of your cabinets! would it be possible to put any glass inserts in a few cabinet doors?

I feel terrible (such a wimp). I'm exhausted (arms sore) after measuring, cutting and inserting (gluing) liner on 4 shelves. well, I did also measure and cut a liner for a drawer also! (knock myself out there!) oh well, I did have to cart around about 10 cans of veggies/soup to put on the edges of the liner to hold it in place til the glue on the edges took hold. (exercise!)

I also played a few extra minutes of 'chetsh' (catch) with puppy. I bought her a new toy today and she was excited. She also needed more practice to catch the new toy in midair! (practicing to join the Globetrotters)
She'd eaten about 2/3s of her old toy - not much left to it but the ball part on the end.

Mama Goose, I'm very sorry to hear about the shoulder issue. But not surprised....girl, don't be hanging that sheetrock by yourself!

You're so active that, provided you stay slim-ish, I would hope you have a very good chance of avoiding the diabetes.

Anyway, keep your chin up! Thanks for posting your latest, even if its not the news you'd like to be posting. The big work will always wait. And after all, the LAST thing your Small Home admirers want is for you to be actually FINISHED with all your interesting projects! We can wait....you keep up the physical therapy....

I've been wondering about glass in some of the uppers. We're having trouble finding anyone who can match the raised panel part of those doors, so doing glass would solve that problem IF they are in the right places.

Mama Goose: This is OT, but for what it's worth, I had frozen shoulder several years ago. Had the shots, did the prescribed exercises with little success. Then one Saturday after 10 weeks of messing with the shoulder I said forget it, and painted my living room by myself. The up and down movement of painting "thawed" my shoulder in one day. Go figure. My doctor just shook his head and asked me not to mention to his wife the therapeutic value of home decorating. Best wishes. :o)

LOL joyce!

marti, you're welcome on both counts. One of my daughters separated from her husband early in 2010, and moved back in with us, with her son, who is now 4. They share custody, so the grandson spends a little more than half his time here. The other grandson (ex son-in-law's older son) visited today to color Easter eggs. They are cuties! My younger daughter is still in college, so comes home most week-ends. Her thesis was just approved, and she has interviewed for a local job, so she may be here full time, soon. About 6 mos ago my son moved back to Ohio from San Antonio,TX--it's nice to have all my kids close again.

Thanks, desertsteph!

Shadygrove, thank you. My younger daughter helped me hang the sheetrock on the walls, after my son helped carry it in (before I started having shoulder pain). Oops, I should have clarified that the ceiling was already finished, except for paint. I would definitely have rounded up some help to rock the ceiling. And, not to worry--I have enough projects to keep everyone entertained for a long time. :)

marti, yes! put in some glass doors if possible. I love the way they 'expand' a kitchen.

joycedc, thank you for the good wishes. I washed windows today--maybe that will do it!

mama g- you WASH windows? yikes and double yikes!!!

wait - does wiping a window down w/ a wet microfiber cloth count as 'washing' a window? if so, I've done that!

HaHa, steph. Actually, blowing on a window and wiping it with a sleeve counts too!!

And, note to self, next time do not wash windows BEFORE having grandsons here for egg coloring day. ;)

Marti, don't want to bust your bubble here, but if you have trouble with NOISE, or SOUNDS, then glass doors will not be helpful to your problem.

Sometimes they have that wire stuff, which is not of course air tight, but it looks good anyway. In the middle panels of the doors.

Old fashioned pie safes had them, remember.
You might find it interesting to get mica, like the Arts & Crafts lampshades were made of. Translucent and colorful, but I do not think as hard as glass itself? Anybody like Rafor know?

Mama Goose- So sorry to read about your shoulder problems...but very glad that you're getting to spend Easter weekend with your little cuties! :)

Marti- Have you considered shirring some fabric, for the upper cabinets? They'll help absorb some noise and you can add chicken wire, if you want a bit more stability/country look. If you use little rods, it should be easy to take the fabric out to wash. Just an idea...

Mama-goose I am so sorry to hear about your sore shoulder. Take it easy and try to get it healed.

Marti I know even the lace curtains I have make a big difference in the echo on living room and kitchen. I hope you can get that one solved.

Mama Goose, I had frozen shoulder several years ago, I think mine was caused by walking a 65 lb dog who liked to lunge at things. My Rheumatologist sent me to a shoulder surgeon who took one look at my heavy upper arms and told me that women like me with thyroid problems (which he deduced from my flabby arms)often got frozen shoulders and recovery was not very likely. He also told me that I could try some physical therapy if I wanted to waste my time, but it does not work. He gave me a barely readable handout with drawings of exercises. Recovery would take a minimum of 2 years, if I did recover, he said.

I went to Stan, my PT man, and he very carefully stretched my shoulder and designed exercises to strengthen it, and I was all better in about 6 months. I have odd joints, however. I am hypermobile, and moving at either end of the range of motion is very risky because I extend too far and injure the joint. Stan understands this better than anyone and knows how to stop me from hurting myself.

One thing that helped me was whenever I was standing and talking to someone at work, I would stand in the doorway and stretch my arm above my head as far as it would go. I would lean into the stretch and push my shoulder to its limit.

Best of luck, you can recover from this. If you have good health insurance, you may want to seek a good PT clinic. I think I also got ultrasound treatments, and they were great.

I do that stretch too nancy. I found it online when I searched for PT for rotor cuff injury.

lavender & shades, thank you!

nancy, thank you for all the advice. I'm finding more people with frozen shoulder than I'd imagined--found old threads on GW Kitchen Table and Health forums. I'd read about possible connections to thyroid problems and heart disease, but is it 'the chicken or the egg?' Does the inflammation contribute to hypo/hyperthyroidism and heart disease, or do they all have the same underlying cause? I had an xray to rule out bone spurs or arthritis, and I'm hoping that I'm in the 90% who (reportedly) can improve with PT.

I have a list of stretches to do in sequence, including the 'wall climb'--similar to what you did. I've improved my range of motion ap. 10-25% since the cortisone reduced the inflammation and pain, and if the exercises keep my shoulder from getting stiffer, until it heals on its own, I'll be happy. I really don't want the manipulation or surgery unless it's a last resort.

Sorry about bringing this old thread back, especially since it's about our OT discussion of frozen shoulder/adhesive capsulitis. After commenting on another thread about (undiagnosed) frozen shoulder, I remembered that I hadn't updated after recovery.

I am in the fortunate group who has recovered almost 100% range of motion. I still feel a little stiffness at the top of my range, or if I over-work my arm, but most of the time I forget that I ever had it. Last year at this time I feared that I'd never be able to move my left arm normally, ever again.

In case anyone else is searching for info on frozen shoulder, I'm including a link to the most recent discussion, where I listed the self-guided (with my Dr's approval) PT regimen that I used.

I'll also paste it here; for clickable links to exercises, go to the linked thread. I'm not sure if they are the actual sites that I used, because I didn't keep track of links, but they are the same exercises.

My 2x/day PT regimen was:

Heat pack for 20minutes before exercising (wet towel, heated in microwave)

Bruegger posture relief position

Scapula rolls - Stand with your arms at your side and perform a shrug motion so that your shoulders rise straight up, arms remaining at your side. Roll your scapula backwards and downward. Raise them back up to the shrugged position to complete the cycle. Repeat this movement for a total of 10 times. This exercise works the trapezius, infraspinatus and deltoids. Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/227683-corrective-exercises-to-help- a-dropped-shoulder/#ixzz2RuyPsVmN

Pendulum circles, first with no weight, then use weights.
1½lb weight (I used 20oz food can)
2lb weight (I used 30oz mayo jar)

*Several of the following exercises are on this page.

*External rotation with yard stick,broom stick, etc.

*Abduction with yard stick

*Internal rotation - towel stretch, rear

Akimbo stretch - try to rest your hand on your waist, at side

Arm rolls front and side

*Internal rotation across chest, assisted (use opposite hand)

Warm-up stretch - hands together, fingers locked, arms straight. Slowly raise arms as high as possible without pain.

*Flexion - assisted lift with yardstick, front and back

Wall climbs, front and side

Wall touch stretch

Door jamb stretch, flexed elbow

Door jamb stretch, straight arm

Corner stretch

All fours rocking, flat back

Curls with 2lb weight - to prevent muscle atrophy

Repeat pendulum circle sequence to relieve tension/fatigue

Ice pack for 20 minutes and before bed as needed

Look up exercises on Youtube or ortho sites to make sure you are doing them correctly, especially the pendulum circles--they need to be controlled and deliberate. Write them down, in order, on a sheet of paper, and tape it to the wall, so that you can keep your place--wouldn't want to skip any of those really fun (not!) movements. Start with a few seconds, or counts, for each exercise and work up to longer periods. DO NOT push yourself--severe pain means that you are causing more inflammation. It hurts a lot at first, and you'll feel as if you're never going to be able to lift your arm again. Just keep moving a little more each time, and eventually you will notice a difference.

And do see your doctor--you may need an injection for inflammation before you can perform the movements without excruciating pain.

As you were. ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down for links