irritation

[jazzfish]

jmax315 reminds me of the least pleasant (though possibly most entertaining in retrospect) part of Origins.

Grah. Headache, tired, problems dealing with UPS and setting up weekend plans, and now it turns out my email isn't being sent to places other than itself. And I'm here late today to make up for shoulderstuff on Monday and sleepstuff on Thursday. Not a good start to the day.

On the other hand, Toki Tori is on sale for 99 cents. Perhaps that will improve matters.

---

Speaking of shoulderstuff, it seems that the problem actually lies in the muscles pulling the shoulderblade, and not in the arm itself, at least not anymore. Not sure what I can do about that, other than ice it and stretch it. Taking a few weeks off from phys.ther to see if it gets better.

I can no longer use the desktop at home for longer than about fifteen minutes. Something about the desk and chair and position of my arms is just too painful. I hope a better chair will solve this problem but at this point I don't even know what a "better chair" would be. Aeron, I suppose.

Comments

[faekitty.livejournal.com]

I wish i could give you a massage and palpate the area to see what's going on. Better chair might be better, you might also need a tweaked position.

Does it seem to be in the muscles pulling from the edge of the shoulder(rotator cuff), or between the shoulder blade and your spine? Just curious, i'm trying to visualize this; i don't know how helpful this will make me.

[jazzfish]

I would dearly love to take you up on that massage offer. Yay timing and distance. :7

(This is all right arm, incidentally. Yay for overmousing.)

I've tried position changes and I think the chair is set up to make those difficult. :7 The arms are too long so it's hard to get the keyboard in close enough for me to be comfortable. I have a similar problem at work but it doesn't kick in until I've been here for nine hours or so. (Which isn't a problem most days, but sometimes. . .)

I came in thinking it was a rotator cuff problem. All the phys.ther seems to have fixed that as much as it's going to. Now it seems to be a lot of tension between the shoulder blade and the spine, pulling on the shoulder. E pounded on it last night, she might be able to give you a better idea of what's going on.

The places that hurt just 'on their own' without any prompting from bad computer use are down the outside of the upper arm (to about halfway down) and at the front between the chest and shoulder.

Specific things that hurt include holding the arm up at a 45 degree angle and back slightly, and putting my hands behind my head and pressing the elbow back. Pain's sharpest between chest and shoulder, and there's a stretch in the outside upper-arm. And wall-angels: back against a wall, knees bent, arms in L-shape against the wall, raise them to touch fingers over your head. Those hurt like hell. When I started phys.ther I couldn't even press my arm all the way back against the wall.

[faekitty.livejournal.com]

IF i'm picturing things right, it sounds like your lower traps, rhomboids and pecs(upper chest) are likely the culprits. They all have to work together. Rhomboids and pecs are antagonistic muscles, one becomes elongated, the other side will become contracted. Long term, this presents a problem. Hmmm, also possibly lattisimus dorsi, large back muscle, also helps you reach. These all work together.

I came in thinking it was a rotator cuff problem. Phy Ther have the equ of a Masters degree, unless they are working under someone else and have a lesser degree (maybe a 4yr), but they still have a buttload more schooling than CMT's do; it's why i can't just go get a job helping out without going back to school.

So it pains me to hear that you went to PT, told them where the problem was, and came out with a problem remaining. I could be missing something...so i'll be generous. They should have taken your complaint and then muscle tested everything related and worked ir out until it was fixed or you had sufficient exercises to do at home. /rant.

Instead of me trying to describe stretches here, i am going to see if i can find them shown on you tube and send them.

Ice is your friend, apply it where it hurts. You may also want to try contrast treatment, contrasting between moist heat and ice. Ice until comfortably numb, rest for a few minutes, then apply moist heat (hot shower, hot moist towels, let me know if need more ideas).

There is a great product you can get from chiros, maybe your PT, massage places, and Amazon, called Biofreeze. It simulates the ice pack therapy with a combination of menthol and holly extract and the scent goes away. Does not even compare to over the counter products. Little bit goes a long way.

Homedics also makes a nice vibrating massage tool that i have found helpful. Sold at Target, long handle, large square head. Stef uses it to help me, and my chiro has something like it but stronger. Vibration confuses the muscle into relaxing without the pounding.

Let me know if this is helpful or over the edge, and i will adjust appropriately.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

jazzfish asked me to comment:

At first all the back from the shoulder down to the bottom of the shoulder blade was just totally solid tension, but once that eased up some I could get at the underneath stuff.

He had a line of muscle knot, or several knots, lined up along the inside of the shoulder blade up by where the blade curves in from the back towards the shoulder. Normally he gets them lower down along the blade and singular, rather than a line and the knot tries to duck underneath the blade when I work on it. This time it didn't - I guess it was far enough out from the blade. I didn't feel any knots up in the top of the shoulder where it joins the neck, nor anything down around the bottom of the shoulder blade where it curves into the armpit.

[faekitty.livejournal.com]

I replied to him. I probably overdid it. It's hard to get both sides of my brain going and get them to cooperate. Hopefully something helpful will come from it. :)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

re: overmousing:

I don't know if it would work for you, or in your workspace, but when I had an officejob, I actually switched the mouse over to the other side to balance out my hand use. It confused the heck out of my co-workers who would occasionally try to do something on my computer and try to use the mouse right-handed without realizing the buttons were switched, but it did work pretty well for me in terms of hand stress. Just a thought.

[jazzfish]

Unfortunately I use a trackball that's shaped to my right hand. Have since I first started noticing RSI problems, um, ten-plus years ago.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I work on an instrument that has it's own computer that interfaces with the lab computers (poorly). Each computer has it's own keyboard and mouse. I generally stump my coworkers when I'm at that bench because I put a mouse in each hand and go at it, rather than scooting my chair back and forth (PitA because I can't reach the floor to scoot). It's a skill I'm suprisingly proud of.

[jonny-law.livejournal.com]

If the problem is the position of your arm when using a mouse would you like one of my Wacom tablets? I have an older one that is out of support and a slightly less old one that is supported but the pen nib seems a little insensitive.

[jazzfish]

At home at least, the problem is the position of the keyboard relative to the body. I'm not sure exactly why but my chair makes it difficult to keep the keyboard try in a good spot. Maybe it's that the arms are too long (and push the tray forward), maybe the way the chair is shaped pulls me back away from the keyboard.

At work I think it's under control at this point.

Thanks for the offer, though.

[babushek.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain... I mean, even after several months of intensive physical therapy, my shoulder *still* is not right. I blame this on the continued repetitive stress of sitting at the computer. My symptoms are almost exactly the same as what you describe you have now. I have to say the laying on tennis balls thing really really helps -- have you tried that yet? *hugs*

[jazzfish]

Tell me of this 'laying on tennis balls' thing. How many, where, what does one do, etc.

[babushek.livejournal.com]

Oh! You will like this! You'll want a pillow, someplace comfy to lay down (I usually do this on my bed), and 1-2 tennis balls. Put the tennis ball on the floor about where your right shoulder blade will be, and lay down on top of it. Now, shift around until the tennis ball is pressing into your tender point or knot. My worst knot is sort of under the edge of my shoulder blade -- this works great for it. Lay there and endure. It will hurt at first, but the longer you lay there, the more deeply the ball will press into the knot and release the tension. When you feel like that spot is "done," you can shift around to put it under a different spot. This also works great on your neck. You can do two at one time, either to hit both sides of your body, or with one ball under your shoulder blade, and one under your neck. If the ball feels too hard, you can experiment with placing a pillow under it (works well for the neck), or a towel over it. Kinda like giving yourself a shiatsu massage!

[(Anonymous)]

PS This also works great if you have the tightness in your glutes that is symptomatic to runners. Just lay on the tennis balls and roll around until they're pressing into the tight points. Lana told me that "if I could feel a green orb under my ass, I must be a princess." ;)