Hello everyone, first time posting. Staying positive on my condition i'm looking for thoughts and ideas.

Long story i'm going to try and make it as concise as possible without leaving any details out. I'm Very active, rock climbing, acrobatics, gymnastics, calisthenics, weight lifting, yoga.

One day at the Gym while doing overhead presses i realized my ROM was extremely limited on my left side. I didn't think anything of it until i looked in the mirror and realized i had a real bad imbalance in my shoulder. I stopped working out immediately. For the record I was sick with a flu or a cold a few days before but only lasted 2 days.

I went to my Primary care physician for "shoulder" pain, not knowing what or where the issue was. He did some extremely basic mobility tests and refered me to get an MRI. He wouldn't answer any of my questions because it was out of the scope of his practice.

MRI came in, referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. The ortho also couldn't answer my questions directly regarding the atrophy or lack of control of the Trapezius. He said a lot of the time adhesive capsulitus is unexplained. Shoulder MRI came back mostly good, no tears with thickening of the axillary recess of glenohumeral joint possibly suggestive of adhesive capsulitus. I also got X-Rays of the shoulder and results unremarkable.

I've had 3 PT sesions and it consist of TENS unit and doing ultrasound on the trapezius. I'm frustrated because i can do this at home (minus the ultrasound) Not giving me any specific exercises or instructions for me to do. When i ask "what should i be doing" she says for me to do everything i can and then for me to show her what i do so she can tell me if i'm doing it right. Shouldn't she be perscribing something for me to do? I mentioned to her that I think it may be a nerve issue and she said if it is she would have to send me to a see a specialist. Later i find out she's actually a chiropractor not a DPT.

I'm fustrated and confused, so i called my insurance company and now jumping through hoops to get an actual PT with sports experience so they can diagnose me correctly and put me on the right road to recovery. I have appealed to go out of my network with my insurance so that's pending I'm wondering if i should be more proactive since insurance takes a long time to give referrals:

  1. Call my doctor and ask for a nerve test.
  2. Call my doctor and ask to see a neurologist.


It's already been 3 months and the longer i wait the more atrophy i get. It's now moving to my shoulder and according to my sports massage guy my upper pec and serratus anterior and getting weak and atrophied. My main hurdle has been insurance wait times (HMO in the US) and quality of care. Also at the moment, I'm moving again and feeling better guessing at what movements to do for my specific situation. I can't just not do anything for another 3 months. It will only get worse.

I did some research and some people have a similiar situation:
https://forum.physiobase.com/musculo...plex-case.html (Upper trapezius weakness ? TOS? in complex case)

Also found this article and the symptoms match mine
Idiopathic spinal accessory nerve palsy. A case report - ScienceDirect

Will take any opinions or suggestions.

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