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tarsier
Feb 14, 2009, 12:20 AM
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Climbing an overhanging boulder problem, I injured my trapezius (and/or one of the nearby shoulderblade muscles like the serratus posterior) two years ago and still can't get it to stop spasming. Right now its like there's a golf ball underneath my skin between my right shoulder and neck. When it's really bad it's like a train wreck of muscles spasming all the way down my arm and back. I've seen three different doctors and tried Soma, Flexiril, some other drug, acupuncture, massage and lots of stretching. Massage works but I can't afford to get them frequently. Self-massage and rolling around on a tennis ball only goes so far.
I've gotten so gunshy about this thing that I'm afraid to exercise. I quit drinking coffee because I think the caffeine might be counterproductive. Even bicycling seems to tighten up the back muscles and contribute to the spasms. Recently a massage therapist suggested flexing the muscles for a while and then relaxing and stretching a bit. I like the aggressive approach, so I will experiment with this.
Anyway, this has been ruling my life and any recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
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wonderwoman
Feb 14, 2009, 1:29 AM
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I was having sever muscle spasms in my back. The only thing that seemed to work was a TENS unit. My insurance company gave me one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...cal_Nerve_Stimulator
It also helped when I had rotator cuff issues. Maybe ask your doc about it?
Sorry to hear you're in pain! Hope you find a solution soon. Don't give up!
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Nate362
Feb 14, 2009, 1:32 AM
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that sucks D: back pain is awful. I'm not sure if you've used a "foam roller" for stretching out your Upperback/trap/rhomboid/chest area but it worked wonders for me and helped stop my back pain you can pick one up relatively cheap on performbetter.com and it has a chart with all the stretches on it too!
http://performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4918_A_CategoryID_E_487
The exercise that might help is:
you just lay on it stomach up and line it up with your spine with your palms up(dragging the back of your hands on the ground) you make what looks like a huge snow angel. You just touch hands above your head and touch year your butt at the bottom it releaves adhesions in your chest area (bad posture/computer posture/etc) and in your traps/rhomboids/shoulderblade area.
Best of luck! and go see a physiologist!
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onceahardman
Feb 14, 2009, 2:19 AM
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tarsier, my gut says this is a spinal injury, not a muscle injury. Muscle heals faster than your symptoms have. Lower cervical spine refers to the parascapular area. It's very common.
Natually, I'm biased toward PTs, but you might also get relief from chiro, acupuncture, or massage therapy.
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reno
Feb 14, 2009, 4:25 AM
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onceahardman wrote: tarsier, my gut says this is a spinal injury, not a muscle injury.
My first thought, too. Get an MRI, check for disk bulging or herniation. Then, as much as it will suck, get a Nerve Conduction Study, find out if there is a delay in conduction along the nerves.
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troutboy
Feb 14, 2009, 4:46 AM
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reno wrote: Then, as much as it will suck, get a Nerve Conduction Study, find out if there is a delay in conduction along the nerves.
If you do this ask around for a good neurologist who has experience with this. There is an art to doing this and those who are good (read quick) can really help reduce potential discomfort.
Good luck.
TS
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shockabuku
Feb 14, 2009, 4:56 AM
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I have a very similar injury from weight lifting. It happened 7 years ago. It flared up again about 3-4 weeks ago. When it first happened I was taking flexeril for quite a while but it didn't help. I would actually wake up in the middle of the night with this excruciating pain from the inside of my shoulder blade all the way down to my elbow. It would take about a minute for it to die off. It bothered me for months.
After useless physical therapy, two orthopedic surgeons, x-rays and a bone scan I started going to a chiropractor. That started to help. Stretching also helps but it is a little difficult to stretch the injury area so it has to be pretty aggressive. Yoga seemed to help with the stretching. I see a chiropractor fairly regularly still (varies depending on how it feels). It never goes away, but usually it's no big deal. There's a guy down the street who does myofascial release, I think I'm going to give him a try.
Good luck.
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tarsier
Feb 22, 2009, 7:04 PM
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Wonderwoman: a friend who worked in a lab found an old TENS unit and we used to sit around drinking beer and shocking ourselves (college, you know). I had never considered it for anything but recreational purposes, but I may see if he still has the machine.
Nate: I tried the exercise you mentioned with one of those foam rollers and it seems like it could be a good rehab; I'll maybe try to make one with a towel and some duct tape.
Onceahardman & Reno: it hadn't occured to me that my problem could be nerve/spinal related, but I can see how you would suspect that. To me it feels like its just muscular, but I take your intuitions seriously (I've seen some of your posts on injury threads before and RC.com users are lucky to have such an expert resource willing to share knowledge). I think investigating potential nerve causality will be my next step.
Shockabuku - it does sound similar, so I'm encouraged that you were able to get past your injury.
I got a TheraCane and it seems to be a pretty good massage tool for this (at least until I find a girlfriend with strong hands).
Thanks again for your help everyone.
(This post was edited by tarsier on Feb 22, 2009, 7:06 PM)
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onceahardman
Feb 23, 2009, 3:03 AM
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tarsier, let me try to give a little more depth...
Back muscles frequently go into spasm following an injury to the spine (frequently a disk). This is presumably an adaptation, a means of "splinting" the injury. Tighten the paraspinals, to avoid worsening the injury.
After a while, a muscle under spasm will become hypoxic- it becomes short of oxygen, and begins to generate pain. This pain can become a kind of positive feedback mechanism, in which the pain/spasm cycle continues-sometimes for years.
Some people are able to manage symptoms reasonably well with massage, or various biofeedback mechanisms, or trigger point, or myofascial therapies.
I have had my best clinical successes using the McKenzie method
http://mckenziemdt.org
At least with McKenzie, you should know within 3-4 treatments if you will likely have success, unlike some other methods, where you keep trying things which aren't working predictably for a long time.
If McKenzie doesn't work for you (and NOTHING works on everybody) you still have all the other options available.
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Senate156
Feb 23, 2009, 3:34 AM
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yoga, massage, smoke, more yoga...make sure you drink lots of water per day (think ~1 gallon) and are eating healthy too.
specific weight training also helps - i.e. upright rows, db shrugs, etc.
I feel you man...a year and a half ago I went to several different specialists ranging from Massage Therapists, Chiropractors, private Yoga instructors, orthopedic physicians, etc. And was given the full range of treatments, each one astonished saying that I had by far the worst muscle spasms that they had seen on anyone, let alone a 20 year old man. It's been a long and arduous journey to recovery, but through the aforementioned techniques and meditation/relaxation/psychological techniques, the spasms have gone down greatly.
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altelis
Feb 25, 2009, 2:07 AM
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Senate156 wrote: yoga, massage, smoke, more yoga... make sure you drink lots of water per day (think ~1 gallon) and are eating healthy too. specific weight training also helps - i.e. upright rows, db shrugs, etc. I feel you man...a year and a half ago I went to several different specialists ranging from Massage Therapists, Chiropractors, private Yoga instructors, orthopedic physicians, etc. And was given the full range of treatments, each one astonished saying that I had by far the worst muscle spasms that they had seen on anyone, let alone a 20 year old man. It's been a long and arduous journey to recovery, but through the aforementioned techniques and meditation/relaxation/psychological techniques, the spasms have gone down greatly.
I'm not sure I quite get the rationale for this. Care to explicate a little further?
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