bpi/winged scapula

[admin]

Denise, Dr. Ouellette is the chief of hand surgery at the university of miami/jackson memorial. she is not only an amazing surgeon but a great person! I worked as a nurse at jackson so i was familiar with her reputation as a surgeon but 3yrs ago my 6year old received 3rd degree burns to her fingers after catching them in a moving treadmill. Because they were on her right hand everyone i knew at jackson recommended Dr. Oullette. It was the best choice I ever made!!! without a doubt she is amazing. now of course there is a 3month wait to get an appointment with her and you can wait to see her for 2hrs but believe me it is worth it. I was down in Miami from Ft. Lauderdale every other day for 4 months and never complained once because she was worth the drive. I hope this helps, good luck!

[admin]

Unsure if this is the right place as I havent been suffering as long as lots of you but here goes. Just over a month ago I rolled my SUV landing on the side with my head between the road and the thankfully squashed truck. Luckily 3 of my boys who where with me just had bumps and cuts. Took them 45 min to cut me out and off to hospital I went. Had numbness and tingling in arms etc so xrays and MRI confirmed prolapse at C5 C6 and had left shoulder xrayed due to pain. Left shoulder is fine LOL but right shoulder has got steadily worse and now winging scapula happening with only 45 degree of movementand really painfull. Have had the physio (think its rehab in world other than NZ) pull the plug and had ultrasounds etc to rule out muscle damage. Now as it seems to be getting steadily worse am getting really concerned. Would like to hear a bit more from anyone about early verses late treatment etc. Am normally very active and its driving me nuts allready
Thanks
Di

[jennyb]

Hi Di
Whereabouts in NZ are you? I'm in Chch. If I were you I would get back to see the specialist again as soon as possible, if there has been damage to trhe nerves in the brachial plexus it would be good to see someone who specialises in peripheral nerve injuries.
Let us know how things are going, hope it eases off a bit soon.
Jen NZ
ps it's called physio in the UK too :0)

[admin]

I have had an even dozen surgeries for a winged scapula and deep pain along the medial border.Dr Warner proposed the same surgery you had for me but at that time he had never performed the surgery but thought it would help.I never went ahead with it but are wondering did it work ? Did it relieve the pain ? How bad was the rehap ? Thanks for your insight,Jim Walsh

[admin]

I have been reading this forum and everything sounds so familiar! I have had my winged scapula for about 10 years, and I'm not even sure how it happened, although I was very athletic when I was young (maybe sports or weightlifting caused it). I also have some kind of issue with my first 2 ribs popping, which I think is related to the winging. I had LTN decompression by Dr. Nath (didn't help), have been to see numerous chiropractors, physical therapists, and neurologists. I think what has given me the MOST relief are cervical epidural steroid injections administered by a pain specialist. I get one about every 2 months and it gets rid of the pain in the shoulder blade, as well as the radiating pain I have down my arm. I have been told that they might eventually stop working but I am enjoying life SO much more until then. I LOVE whoever invented steroids. I tried the trigger point injections but they hurt like HELL and not as much relief. I spent so much time, effort, and $ trying to "fix" this and have just now accepted the fact that it might never get better and that I will just have to address the pain. Oh, I also recommend the new muscle relaxer Zanaflex....works great and it doesn't make you tired the next day. I hope this helps someone!!!

[admin]

im 16 years old and i had this winging scapula since i 9!!! And i wanna get this surgery done and if you have any comments or anything to say about it you can reach me at cookiesmonster08@yahoo.com

[admin]

My name is Heather and I'm 17 years old. In March of 2001 when I was 12, I had shoulder surgery to repair a labrum that I tore while practicing for the Swimming Junior Olympics. Four weeks after the surgery I had horrible scapula pain and have lived with shoulder and scapula pain with scapular winging for over 4 1/2 years. I went to 7 orthopedists, 2 neurologists, a pain management specialist, and 5 physical therapists. None of them agreed on what was wrong with me. One doctor told me that nothing was wrong with me, one told me that I'm going to get Muscular Dystrophy and be in a wheelchair, one told me that I need a scapular fusion and one said that I need a muscle transfer.

By August of last year the pain had gotten so intense that I could hardly get out of bed. My pain started in my neck and went all the way down my hamstring, to the point that my leg was giving out on me. I have been home-schooled for two years because I was in too much pain to sit in school.

My mom found a man named Paul St. John in St. Petersburg, Florida and took me to him at the beginning of October. He is a Neuromuscular Therapist and is known around the world. He changed my life and has given me my life back. I was pain free by Christmas and my scapula is no longer winging. I feel so good and am so happy now. Some times now, when I get up from a position sitting without pain, I stop and wait for the pain to come, but it doesn't happen. It's so awesome! I'm working out and swimming again and have so much energy that some times I still can't believe it. I was in pain for so long that all I identified with was pain. Pain was who I was. I just feel so good now and owe this man so much because he has given me my life back. He is such a nice man and could empathize with me because he was once a chronic pain patient. I feel like he performed a miracle on me. He has helped so many people with so many different problems; it's as though he can fix anything.

If you want to read about his story go to his website at www.stjohn-clarkptc.com. His phone number is 727 347-4325.

If you would like to e-mail me, my e-mail address is babyheath04@yahoo.com. I'll even be glad to talk to anyone because I know what you're going through. If you can, go see Paul because he will change your life too. I hope everyone feels better.

Heather

[admin]

My name is Heather and I'm 17 years old. In March of 2001 when I was 12, I had shoulder surgery to repair a labrum that I tore while practicing for the Swimming Junior Olympics. Four weeks after the surgery I had horrible scapula pain and have lived with shoulder and scapula pain with scapular winging for over 4 1/2 years. I went to 7 orthopedists, 2 neurologists, a pain management specialist, and 5 physical therapists. None of them agreed on what was wrong with me. One doctor told me that nothing was wrong with me, one told me that I'm going to get Muscular Dystrophy and be in a wheelchair, one told me that I need a scapular fusion and one said that I need a muscle transfer.

By August of last year the pain had gotten so intense that I could hardly get out of bed. My pain started in my neck and went all the way down my hamstring, to the point that my leg was giving out on me. I have been home-schooled for two years because I was in too much pain to sit in school.

My mom found a man named Paul St. John in St. Petersburg, Florida and took me to him at the beginning of October. He is a Neuromuscular Therapist and is known around the world. He changed my life and has given me my life back. I was pain free by Christmas and my scapula is no longer winging. I feel so good and am so happy now. Some times now, when I get up from a position sitting without pain, I stop and wait for the pain to come, but it doesn't happen. It's so awesome! I'm working out and swimming again and have so much energy that some times I still can't believe it. I was in pain for so long that all I identified with was pain. Pain was who I was. I just feel so good now and owe this man so much because he has given me my life back. He is such a nice man and could empathize with me because he was once a chronic pain patient. I feel like he performed a miracle on me. He has helped so many people with so many different problems; it's as though he can fix anything.

If you want to read about his story go to his website at www.stjohn-clarkptc.com. His phone number is 727 347-4325.

If you would like to e-mail me, my e-mail address is babyheath04@yahoo.com. I'll even be glad to talk to anyone because I know what you're going through. If you can, go see Paul because he will change your life too. I hope everyone feels better.

Heather

[Heather Frey]

Hi Tara,

My name is Heather and I'm 17. I was in chronic pain with a winging scapula for about 4 1/2 years. The pain in my scapula started about a month after I had surgery in March of 2001 to repair a labrum that I tore in my shoulder while I was training for the swimming Junior Olympics.

At first trigger point injections would help the scapula pain, but eventually they stopped working. My pain continued and I started having shoulder pain with winging scapula. Some times, when I would stop the physical therapy, the winging subsided, but if I overdid anything physical that involved my shoulder, my scapula would wing again.

I went to so many specialists and I got different opinions from all of them. One doctor told me that nothing was wrong with me and another one who is a well known shoulder surgeon for a professional baseball team told me that I'm going to come down with Muscular Dystrophy and be in a wheelchair. One doctor told me that I need a muscle transfer and another one said that I needed a scapular fusion.

Last summer and fall the pain was so intense that I hardly got out of bed. I had pain from my neck down to my hamstring and down my arm into my fingers. Some times, my leg gave out on me and I had trouble hold things in my hand and at times dropped things.

My mom found a Neuromuscular Therapist named Paul St. John in St. Petersburg, Florida. His number is 727 347-4325 and his website is www.stjohn-clarkptc.com. We went to see Paul on October 3rd and I went for treatments once a week for 10 weeks and was pain free by Christmas. Sometimes I still can't believe it because I feel so good and feel like a new person. It had gotten to the point where I had given up any hopes of going to college or thinking about my future because all that I could think about was pain. Pain was who I was because pain was all that I knew. I lost my whole teenage years. But it's different now. Paul gave me my life back. I'm working out now and am even swimming again. It feels so good to be happy again.

Paul is such a nice man and could totally relate to me because he was a chronic pain patient for four years too. If you go to his website, click on his bio. It is so interesting. He has helped and cured so many people who were told by doctors that they couldn't be helped or that they needed unnecessary surgeries (I had two unnecessary surgeries). People fly in from all over the world just to get treated by him. He has so many famous clients and even helps little babies who had problems from their births. The last orthopedist that I saw told my mom that she would be wasting her time and money by taking me to Paul St. John. Well, he was wrong, just like all of the other doctors.

You really should go see Paul because he changed my life. My e-mail address is swimmingcutie04@yahoo.com. Maybe we can talk if you would like to. I hope you feel better Tara.

Heather

[Jordan]

Hi all. I am a 42 year old male suffering with chronic pain associated with a winging scapula. Up until age 39 I was very athletic lifting weights and running 25 miles a week. My life has been turned upside down by a combination of spine and brachial plexus disease that became symptomatic in July of 2002. I happen to be a medical doctor who specialized in Internal Medicine and I am now a patient. As such, I have quite a bit of insight into the nature of the disorders and symptoms suffered by people with conditions similar to mine. When I developed spontaneous onset severe shoulder pain followed by wasting of the supraspinatous and infraspinatous muscles (the muscles housed in the upper and lower portions of the scapula) I recognized that I had a neurological disorder. I saw a neurologist and had all the usual tests. Turned out I had significant cervical disc disease with spinal cord and nerve root compression while at the same time my presenting symptoms, Shoulder MRI, Nerve Conduction Study and Exam suggested an isolated problem of the suprascapular nerve- a nerve that exits early from the upper part of the brachial plexus. Parosnage Turner Syndrome- a disease of unknown cause affecting the nerves of the brachial plexus, was diagnosed. Since no known relationship exists between cervical disc disease and Parsonage Turner Syndrome and it was not suspected that I could have two unrelated serious problems at the same time, an achems razor approach was taken and it was decided to leave my neck alone and treat the shoulder pain symptomatically. Unfortunately, I developed spinal cord symptoms with below-the-waste problems and severe pain between and along the edges of the shoulder blades. I was rediagnosed with parsonage turner AND cervical myelopathy. I had cervical spinal fusion and my lower body problems vanished but the pain between the scapulae did not. About 2 weeks after that surgery, I had a second attack of parsonage turner. Second attacks, unfortunately, are not rare. This time, another nerve of the brachial plexus was involved- the long thoracic nerve also known as the long nerve of Bell. Wasting of the serratus anterior muscle developed rapidly along with winging of the scapula. About a year after the surgery, the wasting of the supraspinatous and infraspinatous was no longer evident. External rotation of my right arm, not possible for 1.5 years was now back to normal. A whole new pain syndrome developed with the latest parsonage turner attack characterized by terrible unrelenting muscle spasm and pains of all character in my upper back and sides. Any attempt to use my upper extremities would worsen the pain and for almost 2 years, I could hardly move. I saw physical therapists, massage therapists, used TENS and Electical Interferential Units. I tried exercise, stretching, inactivity, meditation. I took every medication in the book for pain and meds specific for nerve pain and much much more. Nothing worked. Depression and anxiety were horrible. Pain kept me up at nights. I had to retire from my job a year and a half ago, sell my home and leave our city for a more affordable location. Almost 3 years after neck surgery and the second attack of parsonage turner, I still have disabling pain and I have to be very careful with my arms. Raising them for only a few moments causes pain and any significant upper extremity activity lands me in bed for a few days. While most traditional treatments have failed, I do get some relief with acupuncture these days. There are at least two types of accupuncture. I tried both Japanese and Chinese. Japanese acupuncture is not as helpful for muscle spasm. The needles are very superficial. Chinese acupuncture goes deeper and seems to be more helpful for muscle spasm. In any case, after the second treatment session, I got an enormous release in the middle of my back and the pain related to the spasm of those muscles has not come back. For anyone suffering as I have, it is essential to treat psychological factors that can make coping with serious chronic pain impossible. Depression must be treated vigorously.
I am still quite disabled these days. I get by day to day by focusing on my loving family and by trying to enjoy the better moments. I do not try to think of the future and live day to day.
After exhaustive research, I do not consider ANY surgery, including neurolysis for early cases or scapulothoracic fusion and pectoralis minor transfer to be effective for PAIN. Neurolysis surgery (freeing the long thoracic nerve from the scalene muscle) probably is worthless. There are no controlled studies on neurolysis and the existising data is very very weak to support the procedure- and it is not without risks! Many cases of winging scapula resolve on their own without any intervention except rest. Surgery is helpful to restore shoulder FUNCTION in those people who are not willing to live with limited forward shoulder abduction and who have had a winging scapula for more than 2-3 years.
I hope this helps someone
Jordan Train, M.D.