Wimsicle
Well-known member
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Hello all,
First of all, thanks for reading. I have been struggling for the last 6 months or so and have done several things from EMG's, MRI's, PT, etc. with minor improvements. The worst part of all, is I dont think the root of the issue is being targeted and myself + doctors cant seem to figure out what's wrong. I am not looking for a diagnosis or anything, but maybe if someone else has had similar issues they can point me in the right direction or help out with asking the right questions.
A little over 6 months ago, I started experiencing pain in my right shoulder. There was a constant clicking everytime I did any pressing movement in the front of the shoulder. I had an MRI done and got diagnosed with a slap tear. Training super light, taking some time off, and nursing through it I finally started to turn the curve. However, towards the end of rehabbing that, out of nowhere my left arm became very numb with tingling all the way down through my fingers. Neck pain came on strong with this as well, and I eventually just stop going to the gym out of fear of further hurting myself.
It was starting to take a massive mental toll on my anxiety and I was getting depressed because I felt so weird like my nervous system was beginning to shut down, at least on my left side. Eventually, I went through a 3 month long chiropractic stint where they re-aligned me 3x a week and I would do cervical traction 3 times a week. There was little benefit noticed. I'll say, the left arm numbness went slightly down from 24/7 prevalence to maybe 5-6 hrs a day of being noticeable.
Fast forward to September and I am now establishing a relationship with my PCP and she orders an EMG test. EMG results come back and just show pinched ulnar nerve, doesnt believe stemming from my neck. However, since the numbness and tingling and such is still there, she orders a neck MRI.
End of December I get the neck MRI. Results were: IMPRESSION: Left dorsolateral spondylosis at C5-6 is causing mild left ventral hemicord flattening. No other neural compressive abnormalities present.
PCP thinks this could be attributing to the issues, but doesn't thing its a major problem as its mild. She wants me to complete 6 weeks of PT prior to seeing a Neuro to see how things go. My neck pain (original complaint aside from the numbness/tingling) has been getting better than where it was, but its not gone.
Anyways, here is my main problem. I don't even know if I am troubleshooting the right issue. What always used to be my left side causing this pain, is now happening on my right side as well. It isn't 24/7, but I want to try and explain what it feels like to the best of my ability. I never feel totally out of pain, I am always rubbing CBD, taking ibuprofin, acetaminophen, etc to try and work through it. My shoulder blades and trap areas become so painful after I move my arm a certain way, I hear lots of popping, cracking, crunching, grinding noises that always follow with bad pain in my shoulder blade/trap area, as well as shoulder and tricep numbness (think extremely heavy feeling), and tingling / numbness down into my finger tips. This will last for several hours, sometimes days, and is impossible to do much because my mind is so hyperfocused on the pain and weird feeling of numbness and tingling.
I have done dry needling and such around my scapulas which seems beneficial, but nothing I have done so far is making the pain go away. PT has me doing a lot of band resistance work with face pulls, light rows.
Neuromuscular OMM Doc had a thought that it was bilateral thoracic outlet syndrome, which maybe it is, but I'm not sure if that would be attributing to my shoulder and scapula pain. Either way, I feel like I am losing my mind and the pain / my head is spiraling out of control. I never had any issues like this as long as I had been lifting, and I am only 26 years old. It's scary to say the least and not something I want to live with forever, so just looking for any help / ideas on where to go or ask my doc what specialist I should see, etc.
Thanks for reading.
First of all, thanks for reading. I have been struggling for the last 6 months or so and have done several things from EMG's, MRI's, PT, etc. with minor improvements. The worst part of all, is I dont think the root of the issue is being targeted and myself + doctors cant seem to figure out what's wrong. I am not looking for a diagnosis or anything, but maybe if someone else has had similar issues they can point me in the right direction or help out with asking the right questions.
A little over 6 months ago, I started experiencing pain in my right shoulder. There was a constant clicking everytime I did any pressing movement in the front of the shoulder. I had an MRI done and got diagnosed with a slap tear. Training super light, taking some time off, and nursing through it I finally started to turn the curve. However, towards the end of rehabbing that, out of nowhere my left arm became very numb with tingling all the way down through my fingers. Neck pain came on strong with this as well, and I eventually just stop going to the gym out of fear of further hurting myself.
It was starting to take a massive mental toll on my anxiety and I was getting depressed because I felt so weird like my nervous system was beginning to shut down, at least on my left side. Eventually, I went through a 3 month long chiropractic stint where they re-aligned me 3x a week and I would do cervical traction 3 times a week. There was little benefit noticed. I'll say, the left arm numbness went slightly down from 24/7 prevalence to maybe 5-6 hrs a day of being noticeable.
Fast forward to September and I am now establishing a relationship with my PCP and she orders an EMG test. EMG results come back and just show pinched ulnar nerve, doesnt believe stemming from my neck. However, since the numbness and tingling and such is still there, she orders a neck MRI.
End of December I get the neck MRI. Results were: IMPRESSION: Left dorsolateral spondylosis at C5-6 is causing mild left ventral hemicord flattening. No other neural compressive abnormalities present.
PCP thinks this could be attributing to the issues, but doesn't thing its a major problem as its mild. She wants me to complete 6 weeks of PT prior to seeing a Neuro to see how things go. My neck pain (original complaint aside from the numbness/tingling) has been getting better than where it was, but its not gone.
Anyways, here is my main problem. I don't even know if I am troubleshooting the right issue. What always used to be my left side causing this pain, is now happening on my right side as well. It isn't 24/7, but I want to try and explain what it feels like to the best of my ability. I never feel totally out of pain, I am always rubbing CBD, taking ibuprofin, acetaminophen, etc to try and work through it. My shoulder blades and trap areas become so painful after I move my arm a certain way, I hear lots of popping, cracking, crunching, grinding noises that always follow with bad pain in my shoulder blade/trap area, as well as shoulder and tricep numbness (think extremely heavy feeling), and tingling / numbness down into my finger tips. This will last for several hours, sometimes days, and is impossible to do much because my mind is so hyperfocused on the pain and weird feeling of numbness and tingling.
I have done dry needling and such around my scapulas which seems beneficial, but nothing I have done so far is making the pain go away. PT has me doing a lot of band resistance work with face pulls, light rows.
Neuromuscular OMM Doc had a thought that it was bilateral thoracic outlet syndrome, which maybe it is, but I'm not sure if that would be attributing to my shoulder and scapula pain. Either way, I feel like I am losing my mind and the pain / my head is spiraling out of control. I never had any issues like this as long as I had been lifting, and I am only 26 years old. It's scary to say the least and not something I want to live with forever, so just looking for any help / ideas on where to go or ask my doc what specialist I should see, etc.
Thanks for reading.
