United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi, Just typing this to see if anyone else has similar problem. In Oct 04 I was injured by lifting/pulling heavy object at work. Felt alot of pain at this time to l upper back took advil and within a week had a lot of muscle spasms and pain and noticed scapula was tipped forward, pain continued and eventually was set up with mri and said I had tendonopathy to l shoulder and was refered to bone dr. Dr said did not need to address scapula and was focusing on working on helping the joint instead after 1.5months of physical therapy and some new kind of ultrasound therapy to joint called sonorex (that is commonly used on tennis elbow)still no improvement and noticed that scapula is more winged and pain is increasing could not get dr to address the scapula and would not return phone calls for increased pain had 2 emg's first said was negative 2nd showed some damage to a nerve but said was regenerating. Finally got reassigned to another dr this month (workmans comp is a huge pain in the butt!!)and dr said my previous emg results not consistant with symptoms and redid my emg last week and shows l long thoracic nerve damage with no signs of regrowth and serratous anterior muscle palsy from that. New dr says no way first 2 emg's done correctly and that does not commonly see this kind of injury and needs to research it more.. He has said that I will need scapular brace for stability and new kind of physical therapy. I am just wondering if anyone out there has had similar experience and what were their outcomes?

Triciah, if you look back through the posts on this forum you will find that many of us here are dealing with scapula winging...various causes...various outcomes...but not something your physicians should be ignoring and passing off as insignificant, especially if you are in pain with this or have limited range of motion in your arm.
I could write a book on the subject, but typing at great lengths causes increased pain levels...so...again I suggest you read the previous posts and also visit Steven Fromm's webpage on "winging scapula". He has done extensive research on the subject and it should help you to understand this injury.
It sounds as though you have stretched your long thoracic nerve which is the nerve which innervates the serratus muscle controlling the movement of the scapula...unfortunately recovery of injured nerves can be very slow and is dependant upon the extent of the nerve damage.
Please check this out and I certainly hope this new doctor does his research ASAP! How can he say the EMGs were done incorrectly and in the same breath tell you he doesn't understand the injury??? Good grief.
http://freespace.virgin.net/steven.fromm/

Tricia
One thing I forgot to mention is to be very cautious with scapular bracing.
I took it upon myself to find an Orthotist to design a molded brace to hold my scapula flat. It seemed to be working as far as pain reduction (not sufficient to allow me to raise my arm tho') but it was restrictive and I ended up with adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) on both sides...VERY painful and not something you want to have happen.
I would be very interested in seeing what sort of brace they have in mind for you.
Please just be certain to continue with physio therapy range of motion exercises if you use a brace, otherwise you could have the same problem I developed.