Two Week Flare Up

[Catie]

Dan's trigger point in his left shoulder blade has been tensing up so bad it's been making his arm spasm, it'll wake him up in the middle of the night, and his whole arm has been going numb on occasion. I rub it at least once a day with Tiger Balm and when I'm not rubbing it, he has a Tiger Balm patch on it. I'm sad and out of ideas.  :( Anybody have any suggestions?

[ronr]

http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/symptom-checker/
http://www.round-earth.com/ShoulderPainIntro.html


These two sites should give you some ideas on trigger points that will affect his head, neck, shoulders, and arms.

You should apply a steady pressure to these locations to try to work out the knots that are undoubtedly present.  Combined with heat, this may help some in addition to the tiger balm and lots of gentle stretching.

[foxgrove]

Hiya Catie..  Sorry to hear Dan's shoulder is giving him trouble.  I can relate right now 'cause my shoulders and my neck are absolutely killing me.  I HIGHLY recommend learning to use your fingers to help relieve some of his trigger points.  As my therapist says, "there's nothing like fingers to make trigger points disappear".  

Two books which got me working trigger points better were The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies and Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual 2nd Edition by Devin Starlanyl.  Devin's book is much more concerned with the whole person whereas Clair's book deals solely with trigger points, how to locate em, what to do with em.. The only beef I have with Clair is that his book is clinical as opposed to home remedy.. That means that often he advises the use of treatments we don't have access to at home.  That being said, it's still an excellent manual on trigger points.

There is a great video on HOW to treat trigger points here.. http://treatyourtriggers.com/Trigger-Point-Course-H.html.  He has a series of good videos to help you that you can sign up for free.. The only side effect of which is that you'll get lots of e-mail from him.  No biggie...

Best of luck and keep us in the loop.  I hope Dan's flare goes away quickly.  You're in our prayers.

[Catie]

Thanks for the book reccomendations. I just requested them from the library. I'll have Dan take a peek at them and if he likes them, I'll find them on Amazon.

He's upped his Lyrica to twice a day now, so hopefully the extra pills will help him too, although he's still up between 6 and 7 am with pain.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't the new "normal". =(

[msuguy02]

When nobody is around, my massage therapist told me about Theracane. It definitely helps putting direct pressure on the trigger points in the back without having to exert yourself too much. I use that whenever I need to and am even considering buying one just for my office/cube.

Biofreeze is also hit or miss for me depending on the severity. I definitely struggle with the shoulder pain on a constant basis and wake up consistently because of it. I'm sure you guys have tried biofreeze as well? Sometimes it helps me, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe it's worth a shot?

Wishing you both the best,
Andy

foxgrove - edited for link clarity

[striker308]

Catie,

This is all to close to home, here are some things I do:

memory foam (mattress and pillow) when the triger hits hard on one side or the other I use a wedge to lean me away from it so I'm not lying on it.

Tems unit helps with the spasims

Invesion table and stretching (My wife will bring my arm up over my head and put steady presure on the triger point/shoulder) HURTS LIKE HELL!

but it stopps the spasim after a few min, Good luck :(