Hi- Just found this place and thought I should officially say Hello-


I have winging of scapulae, weakness in arms and loss of grip strength of right hand, loss of dexterity of hands, thoracic outlet syndrome in right arm, shakiness and tremors when exertion or stress (even with medication). Also maybe due to this is weakness in lower back and upper legs with same shakiness and weakness. This started just after the scapulas winged. It is either related to NA or something as of yet undiagnosed that happened at the same time.

I also have issues with my eyes since this started with blurred vision or double vision, high intra-ocular pressure. Doctors do not think this is related.

Hi,
I joined today too. Your post is very interesting. I haven't heard of winged scapulae before.

It sounds like you have seen a specialist, what type(s) did you see? What tests have you had done? Is there anything they have done that has helped you? Did this start all at once or in stages? Just curious. My neurologist doesn't like to link any symptoms together.

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your winged scapula and TOS. Have you looked into any surgical options? What casued the winging?

While I do not have a winged scapula I do have TOS and a trapped suprascaular and axilary nerve in my shoulder that seems to the source. My eyes get blurry as well. For me its the compression, pain and accompanying headache (sometimes slient headache) that cause my blurriness.

Head over the the TOS board and there will be folks there that you can talk to.

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help.

As you can tell there are great number of fellow members here to assist as possible. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene

My winged scapula (left and right) are caused by inflammation of the nerves in the brachial plexus. In this particular case, it is the nerves that eventually feed the long thoracic nerve- which travels down over the scapula and supplies enervation to muscles that should support the scapula in its correct position. The result is that the scapula drops and pops out when you exert those muscles trying to extend your arm, hence the term "winged". There are a few things that can cause this, but the top two are Neuralgic Amyotrophy (aka Parsonage Turner Syndrome) and FSHD, a type of muscular dystrophy impacting the muscles of the face, arm, scapula and leg.

I had also had a prior issue impacting my right hand grip strength. When I checked the internet for “Winging Scapula Causes” I lucked out and got to a page that had a differential diagnosis between the top causes, and rapidly narrowed it down to Neuralgic Amyotrophy. My doctors at the time had no clue as to what the cause could be, so when I came back to them with what I had found, they laughed. How could I be so bold as to try to diagnose what they could not diagnose and on the INTERNET of all places? As I said I got lucky. When I checked into NA as a cause, I saw a study suggesting that some people with winged scapulae also had a problem with their hands similar to mine. That cause was listed as Parsonage Turner Syndrome, aka NA. I had my smoking gun. They had previously suggested that my hand issue was extremely rare. They also said that winging scapulae were rare. I had found something that could cause both issues, and still they laughed me off. So, that is when I saw a specialist.

That specialist (one that I did not have to pay for) laughed at my doctors and told me that I was quite correct in my diagnosis.

Tests? I have had numerous EMGs, MRIs, X-Rays. None of them really helped with the diagnosis, but were used to rule out other things I had no symptoms of.

This has sort of attacked in stages, or two different times between 2000 and 2006. The first time it was my hand, and I was left with right arm weakness and partial paralysis of my hand. Some of that has returned, but not all. The second time it was primarily to my shoulders. I had severe pain in right shoulder followed a month later by winging and development of TOS. The eye stuff happened near the same time. Now, NA can impact any nerve plexus, including cranial nerves, but usually does not impact the optic nerve. So, not sure there is a direct link there. It can impact breathing by partial paralysis of the phrenic nerve. Most common is damage to the shoulders. It also can impact your back and legs. Cool, finally an explanation to my aches and pains. It is not life threatening, unless you like to breath I guess

Surgery is not usually on the table since most people usually will recover most lost function. . . But, that does not mean my scapula will ever get better or that my fingers will ever be normal. You just learn ways to cope. If you have repeating attacks like me, you learn to cope over and over. Hopefully, I will not have to learn how to breath with help, but I know it happens and has happened to people I know.

Sorry this is so long. . . It is meant as an answer to all three posts since mine.

Welcome to NT

No need to apologize here for being long. We all understand here and have written some rather lengthy posts myself.

I have dealt with winged scapulas. My quick answer was Kinesio Tape.

Here is the the link to some images of tapings.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&g...w=1261&bih=840

HERE'S SOME WEBSITES TO READ ABOUT IT.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&g...w=1261&bih=840

For my scapulas, hubby or my therapist would stretch it from scapula to scapula at my bra line. If you stretch it too thigh, it would cause me to have more muscle spasms.

Kinesio tape is good stuff.

Broken Wings. . .
My physical therapist taped me up in the very start just to allow me some time to heal a bit before I attempted to build up strength to my scapula again. So, yes- tape is a great tool for this. But it is not something I would care to do long term. I guess I learned to strengthen other surrounding muscles that increased my stability after the initial incident. Now though, I still have residual muscle issues in upper body- primarily weakness- and not just the upper body anymore either.

What was cause of your winging? Just wondering since it is not really that common .

I was rear ended by an ambulance at a red light in October 2000. almost ten years ago.

I gripped the steering wheel, set my emergency brake with my left foot - which I broke the rubber pad in half during the accident, set my gearshift to first gear and held the clutch and brake with my right foot, (to keep from hitting the vehicle stopped at the redlight in front of me) and took a good hit. I had bulges and herniations from a previous MVA, so that was made worse by the ambulance accident.

Then I was diagnosed with TOS, scalene muscle spasms, and now know I had pectoralis major and minor muscle spasms, which was very difficult to get good care for.

I call it seven and a half years of pure hell ! ! ! ! !

Had PT for 7 years, cervical epidurals X3 that helped and many, many, many other treatment modalities and meds, patches, gadgets, reachers/grabbers and mostly just done without. I put blinders on in my house, as it was not presentable for yeeeeeeaaaarrsss. Still not the way I want it. I'm working on it, though.

In late '07 I found LED and infrared light therapy pads. They have been a turning point to recovery for me. I will tell you more about the lights if you are interested. I ended up with 3 pads, and I want a couple more.

I've also used trigger point therapies that helped a lot. Using a Theracane http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&s...=&oq=&gs_rfai= or The Miracle Balls http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&g...=&oq=&gs_rfai= .

I'm working on strengthening and endurance and fighting depression right now. It's a battle, but I'm winning.

You've got to fight like hell in life sometimes, and that's what I feel like I'm doing.

I thank God I'm able to do as much as I can these days. I never would have believed I would get this much better.

Dont' give up. Keep trying.

Ask, ask and ask more questions. knowledge and support is empowering. We're here for you...

BTW: Was it Kinesio Tape your therapist used on you, or just regular sports tape? Kinesio Tape has healing properties in its design. It's also a good reminder so as to not overstretch. You dont have to wear it everyday or all day if you don't want, but it will give you relief. Nobody likes having to fiddle with theirself so much... tweak-tweak. I'm so tired of tweaking and adjusting.

An accident with an ambulance. How ironic. It sounds like a bad ten years. Mine was not quite so bad, but also started ten years ago. And I guess TOS goes with winging scapulae whatever the cause.

I work on strengthening, but my muscle strength seems to fluctuate. Sometimes, like now- I can barely do a push-up. A month ago, I could do 20 a day. Not sure what that is about.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am not sure of the type of tape that was used on me. It helped me feel normal again for a while but I think at this point I have enough strength by other muscles in the area to compensate. Still winged, but feels more stable st least.

Thanks again for the replies and suggestions.