PLEASE HELP!!! Upper Back/Shoulder Pain!!

Hello All,

About a month ago or so, I was doing some yardwork. I was working with a wheelbarrow, and I went to lift it and it felt like somebody jacked me right in the upper back, between the spine and the right shoulder blade. The pain was immediate and quite serious.

I went to the doctor's about 2 weeks after this event, still suffering from the same type of pain. He more-or-less said I strained something, gave me some motrin, and sent me on my way. About a week after that, I contacted the doc again with the same symtoms, and he sent me to PT. I've been going to PT for the past couple of weeks, and seemingly nothing is getting better.

Basically, the pain seems to originate between my spine and my right shoulder pain. The worse pain occurs when I make a motion to tie my shoes or put on my socks - anything that involves shrugging my shoulders forward and/or putting my chin to my chest. Sharp pain in those instances, and dull pain for the rest of the time. The mornings are especially worse.

So, does anybody have any advice or tips for this?? I'm really getting desperate, as biking and even runnning have become quite painful and uncomfortable. Should I ask for more tests? MRI? X-ray? Or should I just go along with the PT? By the way, the PT thinks one of my upper vertebrae (T3-T4) may be turned, and the muscles are spasming around it.

Sorry for the long post. Thank you so much in advance for anything you can pass along....

I'd go with an X-ray and an MRI.

After hitting my noggin on the bottom of a pool, falling on my side, and playing an intense game of ultimate I started having shoulder problems. For example, after throwing a frisbee, my neck completely locked up and I had to go to the hospital.

When I got an X-ray, it didn't show much and they still had no idea what was going on. It wasn't until a year after the incidents that I got an MRI, which showed two severe labral tears in my rotator cuff.

So yeah, don't hesitate to get a few images. Have the X-ray done first, and depending on the accuracy of the results, maybe get an MRI also.

Good luck man.

Chiropractor

I'm only a med student so you can take my opinion for what it's worth but here's my two cents:

It sounds like you strained your rhomboid by the location of the pain and the movements that cause it to hurt. An MRI would not help anything in this situation, it's mostly useful for rotator cuff/shoulder pathology.

For muscle strains the best thing is to keep moving it through your normal motions, ibuprofen helps to allow this, but don't try to do anything that will put a lot of strain on it. The PT should help, sometimes it just takes a few weeks. As for the "turned vertebra" i've never heard of such a thing, and frankly, if that were the case theres a good chance you'd be paralyzed or at least have much more serious issues.

Sounds like it might be a rib dysfunction. PT should eventually help, but you usually don't learn very much about treatment for that sort of thing in PT school so it's hard to find a PT that really knows their stuff in that area. You need to find somebody who has taken some continuing ED courses or supplemental education in treatment of rib dysfunction (assuming this is the problem). Where are you located? If you're in the Salt Lake City area, I know somebody you could go and see who is excellent in treating rib/thoracic spine problems.

Thank you all for the responses! I really appreciate it.

Yea, I'm really at a loss. I'm hoping it's just a muscle strain, but I've had for so long, and it's not really getting better....I guess that's why I'm a little bit worried.

If it's something like a pinched nerve, will that correct itself with time/PT? And I've read about the rhomboid muscle being sort of a bitch to heal...kinda takes a while.

climbhigh - thanks for the info. I wish I lived in SLC. Unfortunately, I'm in the flats of SE Michigan.

Thank you all again for your help!