United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

hey im 19 years old. i live in south africa. for the last 2.5 years or so i have been living with a winging shoulder blade. i started gyming at the age of 16 but soon noticed that i had a winging scapula. it didnt hurt at all untill a year later when i started getting a pain in my shoulder. i went on a rehab programme but that resulted in some nerves in my arms and hands going dead. i hardly had any movement in my fingers for 2 months or so. ive been told to go to physio but after 8 weeks of treatment nothing happened. ive given up on gymming as it only results in more pain. can someone please help me diagnose what the problem is as its ruining my well being. thanks so much

Hi,

I'm so sorry about your pain. I'm Heather and I'm 17 years old and was an athlete too, I was a competitive gymnast and a competitive swimmer. I had Scapular Winging and awful, awful, chronic pain for over 4 1/2 years.

My pain started after right after shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in March of 2001. It was recently discovered that I had a previously torn leveator scapula muscle and we can only conclude that the surgeon who did that surgery in 2001 punctured my leveator scapula muscle. It makes good sense because I had no scapula pain until right after that surgery. That torn muscle caused a chain reaction in my body where muscles strangled nerves from my neck to my leg.

Anyway, here's my story that I posted that I posted to a girl named Tara on another thread regarding my Winged Scapula. Paul St. John cured me without surgery and I'm totally pain free and with no winging! I feel so good and I'm even swimming again. Please contact me if you would like to talk to me. My mom said she would talk to you or your parents too. Her name is Susan and her e-mail address is soyasolutions@yahoo.com and her phone number is 239 898-8505. She could call Paul for you and ask if he knows of someone in South Africa who could help you.

Feel better,
Heather

MY POST IS HERE:

My name is Heather and I'm 17. I was in chronic pain with a winging scapula for about 4 1/2 years. The pain in my scapula started about a month after I had surgery in March of 2001 to repair a labrum that I tore in my shoulder while I was training for the swimming Junior Olympics.

At first trigger point injections would help the scapula pain, but eventually they stopped working. My pain continued and I started having shoulder pain with winging scapula. Some times, when I would stop the physical therapy, the winging subsided, but if I overdid anything physical that involved my shoulder, my scapula would wing again.

I went to so many specialists and I got different opinions from all of them. One doctor told me that nothing was wrong with me and another one who is a well known shoulder surgeon for a professional baseball team told me that I'm going to come down with Muscular Dystrophy and be in a wheelchair. One doctor told me that I need a muscle transfer and another one said that I needed a scapular fusion.

Last summer and fall the pain was so intense that I hardly got out of bed. I had pain from my neck down to my hamstring and down my arm into my fingers. Some times, my leg gave out on me and I had trouble hold things in my hand and at times dropped things.

My mom found a Neuromuscular Therapist named Paul St. John in St. Petersburg, Florida. His number is 727 347-4325 and his website is www.stjohn-clarkptc.com. We went to see Paul on October 3rd and I went for treatments once a week for 10 weeks and was pain free by Christmas. Sometimes I still can't believe it because I feel so good and feel like a new person. It had gotten to the point where I had given up any hopes of going to college or thinking about my future because all that I could think about was pain. Pain was who I was because pain was all that I knew. I lost my whole teenage years. But it's different now. Paul gave me my life back. I'm working out now and am even swimming again. It feels so good to be happy again.

Paul is such a nice man and could totally relate to me because he was a chronic pain patient for four years too. If you go to his website, click on his bio. It is so interesting. He has helped and cured so many people who were told by doctors that they couldn't be helped or that they needed unnecessary surgeries (I had two unnecessary surgeries). People fly in from all over the world just to get treated by him. He has so many famous clients and even helps little babies who had problems from their births. The last orthopedist that I saw told my mom that she would be wasting her time and money by taking me to Paul St. John. Well, he was wrong, just like all of the other doctors.

You really should go see Paul because he changed my life. My e-mail address is swimmingcutie04@yahoo.com. Maybe we can talk if you would like to. I hope you feel better Tara.

Heather

Heather-
Did you have a brachial plexus injury from birth?? Also was your winging very bad? Just curious!! How they helped such an injury!! I would love to hear more!!! Was the therapy hard on you? I have a daughter with an obpi who is 8 years old!!

Hi,

No, my shoulder and scapula pain with scapular winging and pain from my neck to my fingers and down my back to my hamstring started after right after my shoulder surgery in March of 2001 to repair a torn labrum that I got from competitive swimming. I was 12 years old at the time. My mom kept saying that something happened in that surgery because I had never had winging or scapular pain or that type of shoulder pain until after the surgery. Over 4 1/2 years I just kept getting worse.

My mom took me to all kinds of specialists who were supposedly the best ones and they all disagreed on what was wrong with me. When I first saw Paul St. John in October, he found that the surgery that I had in 2001 caused all of my pain because he found an old injury which was a tear to my leveator scapula muscle. We think that what happened in that surgery is that the surgeon punctured that muscle and it caused a five year chain reaction in my body where my muscles strangled nerves.

You should e-mail or call my mom. Her name is Susan and her e-mail address is soyasolutions@yahoo.com and her phone number is 239 898-8505 because she talked to Paul about people who have Erb's Palsy and Paul said that he has cured it in people from infant age to adults. He said that the position of the baby during birh is one of the causes. He does something called Neurosomatic Therapy and only did 10 treatments on me and I'm pain free with no winging. I can hold things again without dropping them and I can walk without my leg giving out on me and I'm even swimming again.

After the first few treatments I was really sore for a few days, but I was always sore after physical therapy too and the physical therapy only made the winging and pain worse. With Paul, I got better with less pain after each treatment. Paul did say though that my case was really, really bad. Paul is the best and changed my life so much.

Hope this helps and that your daughter gets better.
That is really sad and I feel bad for her.

Heather