. . .even though, like jcc and Mrs. D., I do sort of feel morally obligated to continue to check OBT and to provide info/answer questions when approrpriate, especially to newbies.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I basically tore the right trapezius muscle off the shoulder blade while weighlifting. I also apparently tore part of the rhomboids (deeper muscles) on that side. The physiatrist who first examined me, in my question mark position of pain, said that this took considerable talent. (I've apparently overdeveloped some muscles at the expense of others over the years of lifting, and applied too much torque--as I've said before, my workout motto is anything worth doing is worth overdoing.)

The pain was enormous, but it wasn't neurological pain. It was good old-fashioned nociceptive pain, with a lot of tightness and pulling besides. The neurological symptoms, though, were the most intriguing part of this--not my "usual" small fiber pain, but a tingling numbness in the back of my right hand near the first knuckle and extending into the webbing of the hand and up the inside of the thumb and forefinger to their tips. It became obvious I had compressed some part of the medial nerve branch in the nerve root area near the displaced shoulder, and/or possibly in the area where the arm extends from the shoulder. This symptom is still present--a little bit improved; I imagine with the "crush" phenomenon and the fact that all of us with nerve damage are far more prone to compressive effects than "normals", this symptom is going to be of long duration. My priority is getting the anatomy back to its former place to take the pressure off the area.

A most interesting thing in all of this has been attempting to educate the physiatrist and physical therapists about these symptoms. Some are more open to listening to a patient than others. I often have to pull jargon on them. (They didn't know my background; you can be sure they do now. )