I have read through all of the entries and think I have a similar problem myself, but I believe mine is more of a posture problem. Back in 98 my chair was pulling to the left, so I thought if I simply let my body lean to the right I wouldn't have to lean my head over as far and I could last much longer in the chair. Foolishly I didn't know that I was going to get curvature of the spine. When I realized this was happening I tried to make sure I was stabilized, but then the pulling in the wheelchair was so bad that my leaning over to the right caused a knot the size of an orange to develop on my right shoulder. It was right on the trapezoid. Heat therapy helped, but the pain radiated up to my skull and was positively miserable for me.
I kept trying to relieve it via massage, but nobody seemed to be able to do much with it until I finally discovered an unbelievable masseuse who use some technique to be able to completely eliminate the knot. Then she discovered that my right scapula (shoulder blade) was sticking out much further than my left one. In order for me to be completely straight in the chair I had to put a foam pad behind my left scapula. It has helped considerably, but I still feel a lot of pain when it gets colder outside. Too bad this masseuse left about three years ago. I still haven't been able to find anyone to replace her yet. One of my therapist said a lot of my problems are caused by the knotting of muscles below my scapula. One of these days I will get someone to allow me to get some therapy so I might be able to relieve this pain in hopes that it might not get worse. I've been in the chair going on 13 years now and I don't want to make it any worse than it already is. Quadius PS sorry if there are some errors, but I am using a backup microphone. That's what happens when my brother leaves my normal microphone hooked up to my wheelchair and I don't have enough power to run it. On 1/4/08, Billy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Silas, > > I'm 18 years post, C-5 and have exactly the same problems. What you are > experiencing is, sadly, a problem with posture and muscle usage. Quads use > their muscles in ways that were not intended. For instance, we rotate our > shoulders abnormally to compensate the loss of triceps. Myself, as a > baseball catcher in my younger days I would rotate my right shoulder from a > kneeling position to throw to first base. Now, both my shoulders are bone > on bone. > > From a posture standpoint, The body is not made to sit or slouch in a > wheelchair, for as much as we do. No matter how well your posture is, in > time you will break down. > > If your shoulders are feeling okay internally, your neck pain may be > caused by knotted muscles under your trapezius. These are very hard to > access for massage. Mine are deep under the bone., and both therapy and > massage have failed me in the past. > > I have had some success with cortisone/lidocaine injections. For the neck > I would recommend a neck warmer (I use a flannel tube stuffed with rice in > it in the microwave. I get them cheap on eBay (under eight dollars). They > help me loosen the tension. > > Electric stimulation has worked for me on my trapezius (my neck is too > sensitive). I've had some success with a heated handheld massage device. > > My doctor has prescribed pain meds for me (Neurocet with acetaminophen). > I use them very rarely because I can't stand being lightheaded or > cottonmouthed all the time. I'm trying to preserve what little brain > function I have left. > > > > > Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do! > > Billy > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Silas Shelburne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > *To:* quad-list@eskimo.com > *Sent:* Friday, January 04, 2008 3:36 AM > *Subject:* [QUAD-L] Neck! > > > > Hi everybody, > > I'm having terrible neck shoulder and arm pain and numbness, the mussels > in my neck are so stiff and sore I can't hardly turn my head. It's worse in > bed when I turn my head, it's like the neck muscles are knotted up and > won't turn loose. Anybody else had this problem and what did you do. > Thanks Silas > >
