Severe Neck / Shoulder pain - delayed?

[finchr]

There are 2-3 options here. Personally my 1 st bet would be cervical related. There is an easy way to test it. Support your injured or weak arm on a table. Now bend your chin to your chest, bend your head backwards or up, turn it to the right as far as you feel comfortable doing, then to the left. Do the same with side bending 1 time. Now try to pull your head back like you were trying to put your head on the headrest of your car while driving Do any of the motions produce tingling or increase your pain?

If not, try repetitive movements with your arm on the table still (to decrease pressure on your nerve roots and place your shoulder muscles on slack). Yes, I am a certified McKenzie practitioner. If it is neck related(symptoms reproduced or peripheralized while the shoulder is on slack) it can be treated with movement if it is a mechanical injury and problem. Personally, from the sounds of it, I do not think the muscle guarding is primary, so do not think doing soft tissue neck work addresses the primary problem. From your response you get no relief as a result of anyway

It could still be rotator cuff related, but the neck has to be ruled out 1 st. If it is neck related I would look up mckenziemdt.org, put in you country and city and they will tell you where a certified provider is.

Have your therapist try mechanical traction on you. Again, if you improve quickly, it is most likely neck

The neck would be a whole lot easier to deal with than a RTC tear. If you had a big tear, I doubt you would have been able to do the muscle pose, but I have seen stranger things. Don't micro focus on possible asymmetries that may have been there before even.

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You all get physical therapy for free over there? Damn, salaries must be on the low side.

[Tonybob]

There are 2-3 options here. Personally my 1 st bet would be cervical related. There is an easy way to test it. Support your injured or weak arm on a table. Now bend your chin to your chest, bend your head backwards or up, turn it to the right as far as you feel comfortable doing, then to the left. Do the same with side bending 1 time. Now try to pull your head back like you were trying to put your head on the headrest of your car while driving Do any of the motions produce tingling or increase your pain?

If not, try repetitive movements with your arm on the table still (to decrease pressure on your nerve roots and place your shoulder muscles on slack). Yes, I am a certified McKenzie practitioner. If it is neck related(symptoms reproduced or peripheralized while the shoulder is on slack) it can be treated with movement if it is a mechanical injury and problem. Personally, from the sounds of it, I do not think the muscle guarding is primary, so do not think doing soft tissue neck work addresses the primary problem. From your response you get no relief as a result of anyway

It could still be rotator cuff related, but the neck has to be ruled out 1 st. If it is neck related I would look up mckenziemdt.org, put in you country and city and they will tell you where a certified provider is.

Have your therapist try mechanical traction on you. Again, if you improve quickly, it is most likely neck

The neck would be a whole lot easier to deal with than a RTC tear. If you had a big tear, I doubt you would have been able to do the muscle pose, but I have seen stranger things. Don't micro focus on possible asymmetries that may have been there before even.

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You all get physical therapy for free over there? Damn, salaries must be on the low side.

Thanks for the response,

The pain isn't as bad as it was - I was very mobile yesterday and made an effort to really keep the neck / head moving. It subsided for most of the day and came back after laying in bed asleep for about 2 hours, then the dull aches began again and continues to do so this morning. Twisting my head to the left (problem side) is the niggle - just feels stiff, not really painful. Traction was suggested as the next step if it hadn't subsided.

And, no - Physio isn't free unless you wait for about 6 months! By then you're more likely to have fixed the problem yourself or it has subsided! The pain here is too much to wait that long, so I've paid for the treatment so far. I do have private medical insurance but this takes some time to get in place too, you firstly need a doctors referral then see if your private company agree to the treatment. It can be complex sometimes!

Thanks for the input.