Shoulder blade pain……?
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at
10:56 am
My 42 yr old husband has had shoulder blade pain for 2 days now and it is radiating to his front chest and he has trouble lifting his arm up and complains of having pain in his chest when he breathes deep. He is not sick in any way no cough, fever or anything of the sort. We have used pain relieving rub, heating pad and that stuff of home remedies and it isn’t helping. Is this something to be concerned about and looked at?
Filed under: Shoulder Blade Pain
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Has he been using the computer a lot? Same thing happens to me, but I surf a lot.
There’s always a chance that something like this could be cardiac-related. . .i would error on the side of caution and have it checked by a physician.
If it turns out to not be cardiac, referral to physical therapy is likely a good idea. The PT can examine your husband, and check the ribs and the thoracic spine for problems. Often, problems with the joints of the spine in the mid-back, or the joints that join the ribs to the spine can cause these problems.
go to APTA.org, click on "find a PT"
He might have injured one of the muscles that controls movement of the shoulder blade. Some of them attach to the chest muscle also. I had problems with one of my shoulders and physical therapy helped.
Have him see a real doctor (MD) who will refer him to a physical therapist…. don’t go to a Chiropractor. Although some are honest, they often charge a bunch of money and tell you to keep coming back for a long time.
If it is on the Left side call your DR immediately or go to an emergency room.
If it’s been checked out and not MI (a heart attack), go to a massage therapist. It may be trigger point referral cause by repetitive or misuse. They can ususally help relieve the pain, suggest stretches and help identify perpetuating factors.
Massage Therapist
Much pain is from muscles below is an example of what may help (based on headaches).
Begin with a couple swigs of molasses or a couple of bananas daily – magnesium (which regulates many things in the body) and potassium (a needed building block for muscles).
Drink at least 1/2 gallons of water per day. Running a body low on water is like running a car low on oil is the analogy the head of neurology at UCDavis told my husband about 10 years ago.
Now to the cause – muscles – your back, neck shoulders and head have tender spots. They are knots in the fibers of the muscles called trigger points. It makes the muscles tight which makes them press on nerves and other things causing the pain.
The cure – start with a professional massage, you will also want to go back over any place you can get to 6-12 times per session up to 6 times per day rubbing (or lightly scratching on your head) every where that is tender until the knots go away. The place where the skull connects to the spine press up under the edge of the skull (to get to those muscles).
For more information read The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Davies. It teaches what to do and where the pain comes from.