Episode Notes

Olivia Foli, our daughter, entered the fall of 2022 as a Junior at UW-Madison with an intermittent debilitating nerve issue she first noticed in mid-July. By October, she had to alter her training schedule. Her rowing coaches amassed a team of sports trainers, medical and specialized doctors, chiropractors, and therapists to determine what was causing this burning nerve and skin pain in her upper back. Olivia was suddenly put in charge of her mental and physical well-being for the first time. Please find out how she managed.

After seven months of tests and trying all kinds of therapies, her sports medicine team is still determining an exact diagnosis. They went through the six common rowing injuries ruling them out one by one. Lumbar back pain, no. Shoulder impingement, no. Stress fracture of the ribs, no. Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome, no. Extensor Tenosynovitis of the wrist, no. Hip labral tears, nope. 

From all the information gathered, they think the nerve pain stems from a Costovertebral Joint Dysfunction or Shingles. Olivia is experiencing a complication from Shingles called Postherpetic Neuralgia because it has lasted for many months. Most people know that Shingles come from the chickenpox virus, which added to the mystery circling the diagnosis because Olivia had the chickenpox vaccine, and most people who get Shingles are over 60 years old.

This was the first time Matthew and I weren’t directly involved in meeting the team to help her get a diagnosis and treatment for the burning nerve pain. Getting information second-hand, even when it is accurately told and with a team that Olivia trusts, evokes worrisome emotions as a parent. Doing our research gave us more information and added to our concerns. Part of the maturation process we hadn’t anticipated was Olivia managing a chronic injury and the accompanying generalized anxiety.