Major shoulder problems after pec minor and scalene block?
 

Has anyone ever had trouble with their shoulder after either one of these blocks? I did not have pain in my shoulder before! I have even informed that my scapula is way over to the side and close to the arm pit. I'm freaking out something is not right! It's like my shoulder is hanging......by a thread. Just the gravity from bending over causes pain. Going back to PT first thing in the a.m. and have her see what the deal is.

Any insight to this would be appreciated!!!

rj: I have heard of someone who experienced a similar problem. I can't remember all the details, but I think they had botox in their scalenes. They were lifting objects for a medical review and the scapula felt like it fell off, hanging. Not to scare you as you don't know your situation, but I think they had to have a brace made to stabilize the scap.

This story is one reason why I have never elected injections. In fact, I was just asking a physiatrist about this as he had suggested possible trigger point injections w/ botox to follow. He explained the injections are suppose to stop the mis-communication between the muscle and the spinal column to continually be in contraction. I asked him about the muscles that now needed to pick-up the slack of those not working and I got a wishy-washy response which didn't leave me feeling sold on the idea just yet.

I hope the PT has positive news for you and it's all OK.

When was the block done, and what have you done since it was done? I have personaly only had post injection flares that lasted a few days. But thats as far as its gone.
All you can do is try.....and hope something helps, what else have we got?
Hope things improve.
Godspeed,
Jay

It's also interesting to ask which muscles were injected and with how many units. I recall one study focused on just injecting the anterior scalene and nothing else whereas the study mentioned that past use of injections hit more muscle groups.

I had the block done on 11/23. It was part of my diagnostic testing at my first appointment with the specialist. I had the anterior scalene injection and the pectoralis minor injection.

I swear that standing up straight you can see that my left side is hanging. I'm talking about the shoulder area. It's very obvious the different in the left and right. It was not this obvious at all before the injections. I do believe they worked to help relax the muscles I mentioned.

I've had 3 PT visits this week. On Monday, the PT couldn't even touch the thoracic area b/c I was so sore from the injections and couldn't even turn my neck to the right without sharp, stabbing knife like pain. By Friday, she could start to massage that area and work on it some.....but the shoulder area is just a mystery! How in the heck does your shoulder blade end up over by your arm pit?

I called the specialist and they want me to alternate ice/heat all weekend and call them back at the beginning of the week if it's not better. Since nothing with TOS is what you'd call "normal" they can't tell me over the phone if I should be concerned or not. It's a 3 hr drive to get there one way. I don't want to make an unnessecary trip if I don't have to. With that being said, I also don't want to walk around with my shoulder hanging down and cause myself more problems in the long run.

I haven't even been strong enough to start stretching at PT after 3 visits. I'm really concerned that I will have no option other than surgery and am pretty scared about the entire TOS issue.

Thanks for the replies and I appreciate you taking the time to read this and give me any comments or suggestions or experiences you might have.

Julie

I hope it resolves with some good therapy & luck. :grouphug:

With all you're going through we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us.

I hate to say I cant remember how much was injected? It was done in the anterior scalene muscle by ct gudied and ultra sound. I flared each time I was injected, about 8hrs after the injection, just after I would want to go to bed the area would get very sore, and go into spasm, but be better by the next day. If they are injecting multiple areas, they would be called trigger point injections, as upposed to just targeting the tos triangle area. IMO