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Left shoulder pain, numbness/tingling/loss of strength in hand and fingers???
Currently having left shoulder pain, numbness and tingling in the hands/fingers as well as loss of strength in gripping. A little history, I broke my left thumb when 17. I started studying massage therapy in late 2001 while also serving in the military. I performed massage on soldiers that were having issues/complaints up until I left the military in 2010. In 2005 I blew out my left thumb from performing too many massage in a row. I kept on massaging but improvised so I would not have to use my left thumb. I was doing massage at a hospital in Iraq, so I kept massaging. In 2006, I won't go into details, but I was running at full speed (which was probably slow by some standards) with 70lbs worth of gear on, tripped and landed full force on my left hand to break my fall. I started practicing massage as a civilian in 2009. After a few months my left wrist started hurting all the way across, front and back. The thumb was also an issue. I have continued to practice up until a month or so ago, but had to stop due to the pain in the hand/wrist as well as my shoulder which has been giving trouble for 6 months or so. Having muscle spasms in my tricep and loss of strength in forearm while giving massages. I have had repeated massages from people I work with as well as other therapists in my area that I do trades with. I also go to Chiropractic regularly. I have had MRI's etc done thru the Veterans Hospital, but nothing has worked. The closest I have come to being pain free was from a MT in SC that did trigger point therapy and I was fairly pain free for the rest of the day but that was it.
If you have read all this, Thank you! Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kate Launer on
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I have successfully used acupuncture to treat a hand injury that put me out of my practice for a few weeks. When it acts up, it starts in the hand, travels up the elbow and into the rotator cuff muscles with some weakness and compensating hypertonicity in the thumb muscles. You might try to find an experienced acupuncturist who can treat injuries, preferably with electro-stimulation. When I overdo it, I still use acupuncture to address it. I usually need a day of rest for the hand to recover, but then I'm back. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Stephen Jeffrey gave good advice. Sounds to me also like TOS compression somewhere along the line. The fact that trigger point therapy helped considerably for at least a short while would seem to confirm that. It didn't last, probably because the MT didn't find the primary TP--he took out satellite trigger points, but the "mother" primary trigger point fired them right back up again. The thing could be anywhere in the upper back. Or, as I've learned from my good friend Gordon Wallis, problems in lumbar spine can be creating tension patterns extending into the neck (due to the body's proprioceptive need to keep the eyes erect) and from there satellite trigger points could be taking over and clamping down on the brachial plexus.
Find a skilled trigger point guy in your area, one that will scan the body from toe to skull for trigger points.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Its easy to say stuff online.. Kind of like a back seat driver. However, the fact that his shoulder felt good after trigger point work. Means that if you could eliminate the trigger points. It will feel good.
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Permalink Reply by Maryshka on
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Have you considered joint instability/ligament laxity as the root cause?
Perhaps an evaluation by a Hemwall-Hacket prolotherapist is a wise next step if what you're doing isn't working. Another option that is less invasive than surgery.
http://www.getprolo.com/shoulder-pain/
Since it’s been proven to strengthen the connective tissues, and has the benefit of over fifty years of testing to back it, prolotherapy is arguably one of the best choices of treatment in cases of dislocation, rotator cuff tendonitis, muscle tissue impingement or recurring instability.
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I have to agree with Gordon. Since you've tried trigger point work before with some success, I would definitely start there. If you can't find a good TP therapist in your area, I would suggest trying a Rolfer.
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Think of how you sleep. Do you sleep on your side with that arm under your pillow? If so stop it! lol Thanks for your service Chris. But the symptoms in the lower area of your arm likely come from some impingement in the upper arm shoulder and/or neck area. But even the best body work cant help us when we have daily bad habits especially during our sleep hours. Let me know how it works out. DRIVE ON>
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My brother had pain on his shoulders after the football hit him during the play and he was undergone Ultrasound therapy in a rehabilitation clinic in Markham. Ultrasound therapy involves the use of sound waves of frequency 20 KHz that is penetrated in to the body. The waves travel through the body by reflection, refraction and absorption in the body tissues. Based on the intensity of ultrasound, it generates both thermal as well as non thermal effects. The result will be increases tissue temperature, improved circulation, less pain and increase protein synthesis.
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Chris, injuries can take months to heal. A trigger point taken out today may reawaken in a day or a month. You should have undergone a series of NMT treatments; one session was unlikely to end your trigger point issues. Go back to him, multiple times...give the tissue a chance to heal.
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Gary - aside from your excellent advice, it's fantastic to see LMT included next to your name!!!!
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Therese, good to hear from you. Hope you are doing well.
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I am, Gary! I'm taking next week off, and I'm excited. And I just figured out (I think, I hope!) a way to help myself with my own serious low back pain. Woo hoo! I'll post more later. Right now my dinner just showed up.
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You know about the soleus trigger point that often refers pain to low back, right? Almost always, I find that pain just lateral of the L5/sacrum junction is accompanied by really painful TP on the lateral side of soleus, about 60% up from the distal end of the soleus.
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