United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My husband has winging scapula and he has had it for 12 years. they just diagnosed him this past week. they are going to do an EMG to see how sever it is. He has been to about 20 different dr. and they all said that nothing was wrong with him. We are so glad that someone has recoginized his condition and is willing to help him.
He also has been depressed. He is in constant pain and because of this, he has not worked in the past 5 years.
I see that you had it for 19 years. Have you had surgery? Did it help you?

Paul St. John, a Neuromuscular Therapist in St. Petersburg, Florida, recently cured my 17 year old daughter's Scapular Winging in 10 treatments. She spent the previous 4 1/2 years in chronic pain, with pain from the neck down to her hamstring and down her arm into her fingers. She saw a multitude of orthopedists who were top in their fields, a neurologist, pain management specialist, a chiropractor, a massage therapist, two psychiatrists, a psychologist and five physical therapists.

She had quite a range of diagnoses ranging from "Nothing is wrong", Myopathy, possible PTS, Long Thoracic Neuropathy, "Don't know", Multidirectional Instability (for which she had surgery in 12/04--- it provided only some temporary relief) to "You are going to come down with Fascioscaphumeral Dystrophy and be in a wheelchair in 3 to 30 years."

Her scapula and shoulder problems began in March of 2001, shortly after surgery to repair a torn labrum in her shoulder. I knew that "something happened" in that surgery.

The last two orthopedists told us that she needed a Scapular Fusion and Muscle Transfer respectively. Their answers, or lack of them, didn't make sense to me, nor did the most recent EMG and Nerve Studies that were done in September of 2005. The diagnosis just didn't make sense with the symptoms that she had and the high degree of pain that she was experiencing.

Fortunately, through research and conversations with his former patients whom he cured of pain, I found Paul St. John. He confirmed my suspicions of "something happening in that surgery" as he found that the root cause of her shoulder pain and scapular winging was a tear to the Leveator Scapula Muscle (it was an old injury) which set off a four plus year chain reaction in her body of muscles strangling nerves from her neck down to her leg and down her arm into her fingers. After speaking to Paul and other specialists, it is likely that the surgeon in March of 2001 punctured that muscle. Sadly, both Paul, a radiologist and a friend of mine who is a retired surgeon all concurred after looking at the MRI that was done in February of 2001, that her labrum wasn't even torn to begin with, making the surgery in March of 2001 totally unncessary, as was the surgery in December of 2004 to correct the Multidirectional Instability (which was a symptom of the winging and shoulder pain, not the cause).

We saw Paul in early October and she was pain free before Christmas. The man is amazing. Before we saw Paul, Heather was unable to put her arm out in fron to of her or over her head. It had gotten to the point where she was afraid to walk because her leg gave out on her, causing her to fall. If you would like to e-mail me or speak with me, my e-mail address is soyasolutions@yahoo.com and my phone number is 239 898-8505. Paul's website address is www.stjohn-clark.com and his phone number is 727 347-4325. If you call his office, ask to speak to Paul directly and he will return your call. Also, Heather would be happy to speak to any of you who are interested.

I wish you all well and hope that you find some relief. Paul has given my daughter a life back.

Susan Frey

Hi Jordan,

I'm sorry about all the pain that you are experiencing. I was feeling the same way until Paul St. John cured me. I posted someething about him the other night under this thread and I hope you will read it because he changed my life.

My mom tried to e-mail you but it is no longer a good address so if you like, you can e-mail her at soyasolutions@yahoo.com or call her at 239 898-8505. Her name is Susan.

She posted something last night to you and it did get posted, but now it's gone. Please read my post because I know that Paul can help you.

Please feel better.

Heather

Thanks for responding. I am familiar with Dr. St. John's approaches. He is a good physical medicine doctor. I am glad you had a successful recovery!

Hi Jordan,

Thanks so much. Paul isn't a Physical Medicine doctor; he's a Neuromuscular Therapist. I did see a Physical Medicine doctor and he misdiagnosed me. He did an EMG and Nerve Studies and told my mom that it was an abnormal and incomplete study but he couldn't explain to her what that meant and then he got mad at her when she told him that it wasn't making any sense.

You should call Paul; he said that he would be glad to talk to anyone with my type of problem. His number is 727 347-4325. If you call him please tell Marybeth, his secretary that Heather said you should call Paul. He is really busy but he will call you back.

He changed my life. I feel so good and I'm so happy again. I forgot what it was like to be happy but I'm so grateful that he came into my life and that my mom never gave up trying to get me better. Sometimes I just felt like giving up and I didn't even want to go see Paul because I was so sick of going to doctors and of the way that they treated me. But I'm so glad that I didn't give up.

Please feel better. I'm thinking about you and about everybody else who is in so much pain.

Heather

Hi, im 23 years old and suffered damage (as im told) to my long thoracic nerve resulting from a skateboarding accident at 17. There is little pain involved but my arm seems to go numb and or just a tingling sensation when moved in positions above my head particularly when laying down.I do have a winging scapula which has become increasingly uncomfortable in the recent year A physician who could accurately asses the damage to the nerve would be greatly appreciated. I live in the Los Angeles/Orange County Area CA. Thank You

Hi Brad,

I'm so sorry about the pain that you are experiencing. My daughter was diagnosed with LTNP (one of many diagnoses) and had severe Scapular Winging.

She was cured in just 10 treatments by Paul St. John, a world-renowned Neuromuscular Therapist. Heather's post is on this thread.

I sent you an e-mail regarding Paul's information and our contact information. Good luck to you. I wish you well.

Susan

Hi, Im 21 years old, and I have a winged scapula. It happened 13 months ago, and i have no idea what happened. I woke up one morning with intense pain in my right shoulder/right side of my back, and then for a week i couldnt sleep or do anything with it. After that week, it stopped hurting so much, so I just assumed that I had trapped a nerve or pulled a muscle or something. Then about a month later i realised that i couldnt lift my right arm very high, adn then a month after that I noticed my shoulder blade protruding when i lifted my right arm up forcefully, pulling it up with my left hand. Like i say its been a year, I just left it cus I thought it would fix itself. No such luck!

I was just wondering if anyone knows what exactly it is that i have done. When i lift my right arm my scapula sticks out to the side slightly and lifts. Its causing quite considerable pain, most of the time. This seems pretty standard with everyone. What kind of surgery is available, or relevant? are there exercises i can do to help it in the mean time? Any help would be gratefully recieved.

Mike (UK)

well, I can tell you that this web site was found for me by my doctor in Portugal. I am an American service member serving abroad. I have suffered with this pain since my injury in Iraq. I was told for three years that nothing could be done to correct, when in fact, that is not true. I have since found a doctor here who will not only fix the problem, but has restored hope to my life, and my future. http://freespace.virgin.net/steven.fromm/

Hi Mike,

My name is Heather and I'm 17. Paul St. John, a Neuromuscular Therapist in St. Petersburg, Florida cured both my awful, horrible pain and my winging scapula in just 10 treatments.

Paul pioneered the St. John Method of Neuromuscular/Neurosomatic Therapy and is known all over the world. He has clients who fly in to see him from all over. Also, he has St. John-trained therapists all over America; I'm not sure if he has trained anyone outside the U.S., but I bet he has. He frequently goes to Europe to give seminars because the Europeans are very open to integrating alternative medicine with traditional medicine.

His office number is 727 347-4325 and his website address is www.stjohn-clarkptc.com. Make sure that you read his bio as it's really interesting and amazing. Give his office a call and ask to speak with him directly or ask to speak to Randy Clark or Tracy Jones who are his associates and ask Paul if he knows of anyone who is St. John-trained in the UK who could cure your winging and your pain. Please tell Paul that Heather Frey and Susan Frey (my mom) referred you.

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 Paul St. John on the internet. We went to see Paul on October 3rd of 2005 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).

He is an amazing man and has cured many people with winging scapula and BPI injuries from birth. He has treated lots of people with BPI from little babies to adults.


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 call Paul because he changed my life. My e-mail address is swimmingcutie04@yahoo.com and my mom's is soyasolutions@yahoo.com. Her phone number is 239 898-8505 and she said that she would be glad to talk to you or anyone else who has winging scapula.

I hope you feel better Mike. Good luck with everything. If anyone can help you find a cure it's Paul.

Heather