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  • 04/22/2017 at 7:29 pm in reply to: Tight Muscles on the Spine #76894
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    Hey Kaitlin,

    I had an EMG yesterday and am not sure where to go from here but it does give me some better answers.  We examined lots of muscles and innvervations and MOST are in good shape:
    Testing good: Trap, biceps, triceps, fingers, serratus, lat, levator, rhomboid minor
    Testing bad: Rhomboid major
    He tested it 3 times because of how odd it is that the dorsal scapular nerve innervates the levator, rhom minor and rhom major and yet the major is the only one with an issue here.  It makes me wonder if it is tacked down in the muscle tissue at the major or in between the minor and major.  Have you heard of this before?  Suggestions?
    04/21/2017 at 1:12 pm in reply to: Tight Muscles on the Spine #76891
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    Hey Kaitlin,

    Okay – I have a diagnosis.  Brachial plexus is trapped at the scalenes; the confusing part is my first rib does not seem elevated to the chiropractor and osteopath.  I am going in for needling today.  I know that I can do posterior shoulder, back and core work to help prevent the issue from happening again but first I need those nerves to get unstuck and muscles firing again.  
    With the first rib not elevated is it possible for the scalenes to “lock long”?  It would seem that this could be even a bigger issue than short and tight and an elevated first rib because I don’t know what kind of mobility I can do to get the scalenes to go back to normal resting length.
    Any ideas?
    04/19/2017 at 2:22 pm in reply to: Tight Muscles on the Spine #76889
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    I totally get that.  Is it weird that when I go after the subscap and lat I will loosen up for a few hours and then when I wake up in the morning I feel stiffer than I did before I started releasing – the tissue actually feels completely dried out.  Would that tell you to keep working on it or that I’m in the wrong place?  

    04/14/2017 at 2:37 pm in reply to: Tight Muscles on the Spine #76884
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    I saw a PT a couple of months ago who did a couple of passthroughs on my subscapularis via ART and I got some good feedback and my ROM opened up pretty good for a day or so.  

    If a muscle has been gummed up and in spasm for months is it likely to take several sessions to see drastic improvement (like a sticky subscap) or would I likely see full improvement and lasting relief on one session?
    04/12/2017 at 5:50 pm in reply to: Tight Muscles on the Spine #76880
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    Thanks Kaitlin.  I’ve had this looked at by probably 10-15 PT’s, Chiros, LMT’s, Rolfers and Docs at this point.  I’m seeing a chiropractor right now who is having me build core strength and stability as he says the brachial plexus is being impinged somewhere in the neck; I think he is hoping that by strengthening the core it will take the pressure off of my neck so it can all heal up.  We’re almost 5 weeks in and I’m not much different than I was when I first started with him (going 2x per week for 5 weeks..  it’s adding up).


    I saw an osteopath/physiatrist two weeks ago and he brought up the dorsal scapular nerve and said he thinks it’s possible the muscle is choking the nerve or the nerve is flaming up the muscle.  He said it’s a chicken/egg scenario so we’re doing needling and an EMG next Friday.  I never got a chance to ask him, though, if a really tight muscle can pull that hard on the cervical spine to trap nerves like that.  I was always under the assumption that nerves get pinched by bones and nerves cause muscles to spasm but can’t find really anything online that talks about nerves being pinched by tight muscles – as in you release the muscle and the nerve will heal.

    I’d LOVE to see KStar talk about this but I can’t find anything on it.  He discusses levator in one episode and the symptoms he talks about in the episode are consistent with mine for the most part but it isn’t as in-depth as I would have hoped (not his fault, obviously).

    Main symptoms:

    – Very ropy levator on both sides (you can feel a rope of muscle as you run your fingers over the part of my upper back)

    – Side of neck pain with any activity of arms in front of me or over my head

    – Shoulderblades look hunched and elevated, especially when doing crossover symmetry type stuff

    – Rhomboids feel completely shut off (could be low trap or mid trap but rhomboids are my guess) 
    04/05/2017 at 7:10 pm in reply to: chronically tight levator scap & posterior scalene #76866
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    Hi Eve,

    Did you ever get this resolved?
    01/27/2017 at 4:28 am in reply to: Scapula problems – last chance help needed (probably solved now) #76734
    AvatarJulie Daugherty
    Participant

    Now it’s been almost 3 years – how are your symptoms?

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