I am pretty sure I have a winged scalpula. my mother in law noticed it when she was giving me a massage, and then my acupuncturist noticed it too. Whats interesting is none of my dr's ever mentioned it except Dr. filler who I decided not to see for various reasons.

it makes sense because my pain starts in my scalpula/rhomboids, and it is a sharp pain-then the nerves all around my scalpula,neck and down my arm start to flare. I started taking neurontin 600 mg at night and it is helping but I am having breakthrough pain. I'm thinking of starting to take it during the day too, but dont want to get too tired.

Does anyone understand how winged scalpula is related to TOS? Does the rib just pull on the muscle? What are the best strecthces and exercises that dont flare you up? I lay on the soft roller-but that is the only one that seems to help a bit.I APPRECIATE ANY HELP I CAN GET. THANKS!
JKL

There are some older threads on winging here, you might look on you tube to find some videos & new ideas maybe some self care things.......

When a doctor thought I was showing a winged scapular - they tested the Long Thoracic Nerve to make sure it wasn't damaged or impinged.

In my case, the nerve was fine and the doctor thought the winging was a result of muscle imbalances (post surgery) and had me do a number of 'scapular stabilization' exercises. If you google that term, alot of exercises should come up....

Hope that helps.

Thanks, did the exercises help? how did they test the long thoracic nerve? with EMG?

exercise has helped my winged scapular. Mine was muscle imbalance. It took awhile, but it did help.

Yes- it was an EMG on the long thoracic nerve.
At the time, I was immediately post-surgery. I had a radial nerve release. Since the the nerve was OK, the doctor thought it was from muscle imbalance, possible guarding behavior or lack of use of that arm (b/c of pain).

And, actually, the exercises did help. I had pain in the scapular area also and that eventually went away (and never came back).

If you don't have a club, you could probably use a stick, or a bat, or a piece of pipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Su0sIjD1c

which exercises? thanks

Wow I could not do that with a weight but I tried just turning my arm like he showed in the beginning.

Starting new movements freehand is usually best anyway. Slow and steady wins the race with TOS.