Correct treatment can help long standing neck and shoulder pain…

February 23, 2012

My client brought his daughter to me because she had been complaining of pain under her right shoulder blade, mid back and pain down the right arm for quite some time. This is a stunningly beautiful 17yr old who dances regularly – ballet, tap and modern. Her fitness levels are high. She complained that it hurt her to extend her arms during ballet and to lift heavy objects and she had had this pain for a long time, maybe a few years. Parents bring their children to see me on a regular basis, something that concerns me greatly: youngsters should not be experiencing musculoskeletal pain unless there is an injury but far too often, their aches and pains are posture related….a sad indictment on our modern technologically mad society.

Anyway, upon examination I discovered that part of this young lady’s upper spine had ‘shunted’ to the right en bloc and the surrounding muscles were stretched/taut. Presentation like this is unusual unless caused by an injury or scoliosis but nothing in the rest of the spine indicated the latter so I was going with the former. But no falls or accident had been mentioned to me. When the day returned to colled her, I quizzed him again: yes, he said, she had taken quite a bad fall on a bouncy castle when she was 12 and had been complaining of these pains since that time. I will wager, there was the cause. Could I prove it? Of course not – I didn’t have anything other than circumstantial evidence.

After the first treatment the young lady reported she had felt this pain only twice and after the second treatment, she reported she neither experienced the pain during ballet nor remembered if she’d had it at all in the previous week. Her upper body felt and looked more balanced.

I recommended she do some specific stretches and suggested she buy a back pack to carry heavy books to keep the upper part of her body in balance.

Moral of the story is leaving injuries to fester, especially if the injured person is complaining of aches and pains is not advisable; get them checked out by a doctor or A&E and if there are no breaks or tears, get them to a good practitioner who can redress the balance in the body, thereby facilitating healing and ensuring the pain goes away….

Tags: