I'm so frustrated!! I've had neck (trap)and upper back pain for almost a year now. It would come and go. Now it is "going" almost constantly. I went the medical route first....muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory drugs and rest....for about 2 weeks. It helped temporarily. (I HATE taking muscle relaxers....they make me feel tired and lazy!)The minute I stopped taking them and tried to swim, it came back.
I went to a chiropractor. He did X-rays and said my neck was straight. It is supposed to have a slight backward curve...sort of a natural "shock absorber" for your spine. He also said my neck (cervical spine) is shifted big time to the left.....explains why it hurts on the right! :doh: He said my trap muscles have been doing all the "shock absorbing" and had many knots in them on both sides. He also said my pec muscles were too tight and pulling my traps I've been going THREE times a week to get adjusted by the chiropractor. I've been stretching, icing and not swimming. The only thing that has helped is massage...and that's not in my budget! It doesn't seem to be getting better.:shakeshead: :cry: I finally went "swimming" Thursday to try to stretch it out. The doctor said it was ok as long as I didn't push it! I thought I would just kick a lot. I did try to swim some EASY strokes. It tightend up real fast! I ended up kicking on my back and doing a lot of vertical kicking in deep water. Any advice?
THANK-YOU SOOO MUCH for all the advice and encouragement. This has been extremely frustrating for me!:whiteflag: I was so tired of hurting and in need of a endorphin fix. I figured not swimming for almost 3 weeks had not helped ( I've swam once!) so I might as well swim and at least feel better overall.....even if my neck hurt. I went "swimming" yesterday and boy was that a mistake! I swam easy and did a lot of kicking with fins. The little bit of swimming I did, I used fins most of the time. I kicked without a board, on my back and with my arms at my side. Boring...but at least I got my heart rate up. My neck and left shoulder started tightening up and hurting pretty quickly. I only did about 1500 yds. So, I did vertical kicking. When I got out of the water, my left shoulder was killing me! It hurt to lift or extend my left arm. UGGGHH. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and told him how very frustrated I am with my lack of progress...even worsening of my symptoms. After examining me, he said I have inflammation/tendonitis in my left shoulder and muscle knots all in my neck/shoulders and back. I'm not surprised! He said the Dr. in the office (MD) can give me injections right into the muscle that will decrease the inflammation/pain. The injection would be a natural substance made up of "natural plant extracts and minerals". They are called "Traumeel" and "Zeel". Sounds kind of hocus pokus to me. I'm going to do some research before I do that. Fort, is this similar to your prolotherapy? If so, have you seen any improvement? My chiro also said my exercises I've been doing (I showed him) were not working my upper back enough and I had a definite muscle imbalance. He showed me some exercises to do. He aslo said that I needed massage more than anything to break up my knots. I may have to take the money I was saving to go to Austin and invest in some massages! :sad:
No, those injections are not the prolotherapy and plasma regeneration I am doing. Prolo actually causes inflammation. But prolo and PRP are treatments for chronic tendonitis and tendonosis of the sort you have. www.treatingpain.com (bottom left corner, there's a youtube video that explains PRP). The cure period is a long one though. But I am definitely better now than I was before I started treatment. And I'm not done yet. Maybe you should ask one of your docs about it? I know it's unconventional, but it has helped me when nothing else did. PRP is supposed to be faster and more effective than prolo. (There was a recent article in the NYT on Aug. 7 about prolo.) It's also supposed to help prevent arthritis problems when you get older from all the tendonosis and fraying.
I haven't heard about the "natural" injections. (In fact, natural supplements have no effect on me whatsoever. But I don't think they help chronic conditions much.) I know you know that cortisone isn't terribly good for you in the long term because it weakens the tendons. I did get a cortisone shot in my trap muscle when I was in agony back when I started swimming. It did nothing. Injections into the muscle are difficult and often ineffective unless you're using a special fluoroscopy (sp?) machine.
Knots are tough. You've got to do massage. I also find ART is really good for knots, muscle imbalance and muscle tightness. Often, we're so focused on the tendonitis, we forget that we need muscle work. The bottom line is that when you're training hard at our age, it's tough to keep all the tendons and muscles happy. When you're sprinting, you're straining every muscle. That strain takes a toll and has to be managed. It's by far the biggest challenge I've found in masters swimming. So I usually buck up and go to ART 2x a month or so and cross train. Is your chiro ART-qualified? ART is great for muscular imbalance. If you have to spend the money on massages instead of Austin, get the massages. Otherwise, you'll be in real danger of not swimming at all. Besides, you swim kickass times without even leaving your state!!
Are you doing scapular exercises along with the RC stuff? Maybe you need to hit the weight room a bit. I don't do that many weights, I usually focus on core work, but I do do some moderate upper body work. My pain doc seems to think it really helps take some of the burden off my shoulders.
I feel your pain. I wish I could make you all better. I do know exactly how you feel. :kiss1::hug::bighug:
THANK-YOU SOOO MUCH for all the advice and encouragement. This has been extremely frustrating for me!:whiteflag: I was so tired of hurting and in need of a endorphin fix. I figured not swimming for almost 3 weeks had not helped ( I've swam once!) so I might as well swim and at least feel better overall.....even if my neck hurt. I went "swimming" yesterday and boy was that a mistake! I swam easy and did a lot of kicking with fins. The little bit of swimming I did, I used fins most of the time. I kicked without a board, on my back and with my arms at my side. Boring...but at least I got my heart rate up. My neck and left shoulder started tightening up and hurting pretty quickly. I only did about 1500 yds. So, I did vertical kicking. When I got out of the water, my left shoulder was killing me! It hurt to lift or extend my left arm. UGGGHH. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and told him how very frustrated I am with my lack of progress...even worsening of my symptoms. After examining me, he said I have inflammation/tendonitis in my left shoulder and muscle knots all in my neck/shoulders and back. I'm not surprised! He said the Dr. in the office (MD) can give me injections right into the muscle that will decrease the inflammation/pain. The injection would be a natural substance made up of "natural plant extracts and minerals". They are called "Traumeel" and "Zeel". Sounds kind of hocus pokus to me. I'm going to do some research before I do that. Fort, is this similar to your prolotherapy? If so, have you seen any improvement? My chiro also said my exercises I've been doing (I showed him) were not working my upper back enough and I had a definite muscle imbalance. He showed me some exercises to do. He aslo said that I needed massage more than anything to break up my knots. I may have to take the money I was saving to go to Austin and invest in some massages! :sad:
No, those injections are not the prolotherapy and plasma regeneration I am doing. Prolo actually causes inflammation. But prolo and PRP are treatments for chronic tendonitis and tendonosis of the sort you have. www.treatingpain.com (bottom left corner, there's a youtube video that explains PRP). The cure period is a long one though. But I am definitely better now than I was before I started treatment. And I'm not done yet. Maybe you should ask one of your docs about it? I know it's unconventional, but it has helped me when nothing else did. PRP is supposed to be faster and more effective than prolo. (There was a recent article in the NYT on Aug. 7 about prolo.) It's also supposed to help prevent arthritis problems when you get older from all the tendonosis and fraying.
I haven't heard about the "natural" injections. (In fact, natural supplements have no effect on me whatsoever. But I don't think they help chronic conditions much.) I know you know that cortisone isn't terribly good for you in the long term because it weakens the tendons. I did get a cortisone shot in my trap muscle when I was in agony back when I started swimming. It did nothing. Injections into the muscle are difficult and often ineffective unless you're using a special fluoroscopy (sp?) machine.
Knots are tough. You've got to do massage. I also find ART is really good for knots, muscle imbalance and muscle tightness. Often, we're so focused on the tendonitis, we forget that we need muscle work. The bottom line is that when you're training hard at our age, it's tough to keep all the tendons and muscles happy. When you're sprinting, you're straining every muscle. That strain takes a toll and has to be managed. It's by far the biggest challenge I've found in masters swimming. So I usually buck up and go to ART 2x a month or so and cross train. Is your chiro ART-qualified? ART is great for muscular imbalance. If you have to spend the money on massages instead of Austin, get the massages. Otherwise, you'll be in real danger of not swimming at all. Besides, you swim kickass times without even leaving your state!!
Are you doing scapular exercises along with the RC stuff? Maybe you need to hit the weight room a bit. I don't do that many weights, I usually focus on core work, but I do do some moderate upper body work. My pain doc seems to think it really helps take some of the burden off my shoulders.
I feel your pain. I wish I could make you all better. I do know exactly how you feel. :kiss1::hug::bighug:
