I wanted to ask your for your expertise in my depressing situation.
One week ago I woke up with tight and achy upper left trapezius. I thought it’s a minor issue that will go away so I used ice and later some NSAIDs.
After two days the pain intensified so much I was unable to go to work. The pain was shooting to my shoulder and neck and the intensity was such that I was unable to do anything, especially in the morning I just managed to make myself a coffee take naproxen and then I was transformed into huffing and puffing creature on the sofa for next two hours.
As I started to loosing my nerves (maybe literally), I called my uncle who is a surgeon - so unsurprisingly he did what Dr. Baraki describes in his Ache and Pains article under The physician chapter, he looked for spasm then gave me corticosteroid injection into trigger points which I know do not exist… …but anyway it worked for the pain so - thank god!
After the pain subsided (I feel just tightness in the trapez/brachial plexus area), I noticed I have problem with my left shoulder abduction (when eating or drinking with that hand / pouring water from the kettle etc. it is all like a Parkinson’s simulator), I am also unable to produce hard contraction of the long head of bicep when compared with unaffected bicep. (So is this cervical radiculopathy of C5?)
Even though I would say it is perhaps getting better now, I would like to know your advice on how to proceed with my training and rehab protocol. I was made into making an appointment with local physical therapist for which I probably will go with no expectations, apart form the hope of placebo effect that will make me feel better (the therapist is a young lady). I was also told by everyone that this was caused by the training and I should refrain from it (which infuriates me but I am also considering it, as I am freaked by the radiculopathy symptoms).
My problem now is that I am lost in this mess and cannot decide how to manage this. Should I really give it some pause? Should I go light? And did I really do some long term damage to my nerve? Should I seek some physical examination or I don’t need any? Should I take some supplements for that pinched nerve (magnesium + B6/B12 vitamins…)? Should I stop being neurotic and anxious?
I am trying hard to abide by your 1st rule of not freaking out when one hurts himself, but man I am messed by this!
It has been 20 days since initial trapezius/shoulder pain outbreak.
I still lack strength when performing wrist flexion as my left biceps doesn’t contract properly. I think possibilities are: 1. nerve root compression in cervical spine C5/C6,
2. brachial plexus damage,
3. or musculocutaneous nerve impingement. I have beeen to neurologist and she said I am ok, with no radiculopathy symptoms present as head/arm manipulation test did not cause any symptoms to flare up.
When I tried to train lightly yesterday I noticed that my trapezius muscle is achy when I put a bar on my scapulea during squats and of course my left hand lacks any stabilisation during benchpress so I can do barely 60% of my previous baseline performance. I didn’t notice any discomfort/pain when doing movements otherwise.
I don’t know whether I should go for some more medical tests / imaging or if I just need to wait for it to improve on its own.
sorry about the situation, it’s easy to say not to panic when’s it’s not occurring to you, but that is the correct advice, I don’t know exactly where in the conversation it is but in the podcast Derek talks about his injury that had significant motor weakness in his leg that he experienced and continued to train and it improved over time. As far as training goes you are definitely going to have to make adjustments to see what you can tolerate, maybe worth a consult to develop a specific plan if you are struggling, but I would say to stay positive and the normal course is that this will improve, if it continues to improve even slowly I don’t know what else would be learned by additional testing, especially with the knowledge that MRI scans are poorly correlated with symptoms, and even if you did see a C5 disc herniation for example it doesn’t give you any additional information in how to treat the situation, good luck
Hey @AlexFromAFar , sorry to hear about this issue. There is a lot to unpack here and I advise setting up a consult with us so we can help guide the path. Contact Us | Barbell Medicine
Given the information you’ve provided so far, it sounds like things are trending up - which is a good sign. I think it’s important to reflect on the situation - in a brief amount of time you’ve sought two consults from various providers. It’s easy to say our first rule is don’t panic but it is often quite hard to implement and takes practice. I think we can likely help guide the path in your situation but we need time to address your beliefs, concerns, and responses to dealing with this issue. Regarding training - we can give more advice once we know your training history and what you’ve been recently doing since onset of your symptoms.
I am male 31 years old 181cm/90Kg, I have started lifting 2.5 years ago. My goal is getting stronger.
Last program I did was: Jordan’s General strength training program for intermediate/advance, I did this program since last summer with a short pause around christmas when I hurt something in my hip but I was slowly retunring to my previous numbers on Squat (175Kg 1rm pr) and Deadlift (184Kg 1rm pr) while making new prs on benchpress ( 107Kg → 117.5Kg 1rm pr), so everything seemed to be working just fine.
My numbers for sets of 5s (@8) before this injury were: Deadlift 147.5Kg, Squat 140Kg, Bench 97.5Kg.
When this happened to my I did not train for two weeks, now I just try to do some light squats, benchpress and seated rows at about 60% of previous weight with not much volume. After I benchpress I definitely can feel some nociception in my left shoulder (burning like feeling) for a few seconds. Bigger problem is squat because the bar really hurts on my left shoulder blade so I wrapped it in a towel last time and positioned it somwhat higher on my back.
If the last session won’t have catastrophic consequences I thought about trying to do some deadlifts and maybe overhead press next time.
Long term, I was thinking about doing something like linear progression program for a while and if my strength returns hop on something with more volume again. But I know that this could take many months to repair if the nerve damage occured so I try to be realistic.
I wanted to write a little update about my situation
After trying to identify what this problem might be I came to conclusion it is a case of the Parsonage-Turner syndrome. My symptoms and the course of this disease starting with an episode of extreme pain in shoulder-neck region followed by paresis affecting muscles supplied from different nerve roots (biceps/deltoid in my case):
I mentioned it during my check up at neurologist office and she concurs it might be the case. So it seems that there is a long rehab with uncertain outcome awaiting me… Fortunately it looks like there is some recovery taking place already and I am not in pain anymore and even the bar during squat doesn’t hurt my back so I guess if I can squat I will be ok.
The only case report of someone who is working out that I found says the guy made full recovery in 18 months, so wish me luck:
If anyone by chance had some experience with the Parsonage-Turner syndrome I would appreciate any information considering the course of rehab even though I understand it is an individual thing.