Shanahan
11-04-2008, 11:48 AM
Hi all
Last week I was called out to do a home visit with a client who was experiencing shoulder pain which had been put down to "stress" by their doctor. The client presented with a dull pain in the right shoulder which had been there for several years. Client has had previous sports therapy with practitioners, previous osteo and physio treatments and x-rays have been taken fairly recently which have found nothing wrong and doctor has said that the client is apparently fully healthy and it's totally down to the stress related to the clients job.
I started to work over the shoulder muscles to relax them down and found that the rhomboids and levator scapulae muscles were very tight. When working around the rhomboid muscles and around the back of the scapula very loud snap crackle and pop sounds could be heard and I could feel the popping as I moved my thumbs over the muscles which I've not come across before.
When rotating the shoulder, if I applied pressure to the supraspinatus muscle the popping sound was not heard, if I rotated the shoulder without pressure however it was like I'd applied milk straight onto a fresh bowl of rice crispies. There was also a feeling not unakin to working over chopped nuts around the top of the scapula; the client has said however that they have never experienced a dislocation of the shoulder and surely this would have been picked up on the x-rays?
The popping sounds did not diminish by the end of the treatment but the client felt that the shoulder and neck muscles were a lot looser and the pain had been deminished. I personally felt that the joint was slightly loose and therefore the levator scapula muscle was over supporting the shoulder and this could be the cause of the ongoing pains felt?
Any idea what it could be?
As I said, the x-rays have apparently found nothing and the client has had this issue for over 5 years with a dull ache type pain emenating from within the right shoulder so I'm a little at a loss as to what to suggest other than trying to strengthen the muscles and having regular maintenance massage?
Anyone come across the snap crackle and pop effect before?
Last week I was called out to do a home visit with a client who was experiencing shoulder pain which had been put down to "stress" by their doctor. The client presented with a dull pain in the right shoulder which had been there for several years. Client has had previous sports therapy with practitioners, previous osteo and physio treatments and x-rays have been taken fairly recently which have found nothing wrong and doctor has said that the client is apparently fully healthy and it's totally down to the stress related to the clients job.
I started to work over the shoulder muscles to relax them down and found that the rhomboids and levator scapulae muscles were very tight. When working around the rhomboid muscles and around the back of the scapula very loud snap crackle and pop sounds could be heard and I could feel the popping as I moved my thumbs over the muscles which I've not come across before.
When rotating the shoulder, if I applied pressure to the supraspinatus muscle the popping sound was not heard, if I rotated the shoulder without pressure however it was like I'd applied milk straight onto a fresh bowl of rice crispies. There was also a feeling not unakin to working over chopped nuts around the top of the scapula; the client has said however that they have never experienced a dislocation of the shoulder and surely this would have been picked up on the x-rays?
The popping sounds did not diminish by the end of the treatment but the client felt that the shoulder and neck muscles were a lot looser and the pain had been deminished. I personally felt that the joint was slightly loose and therefore the levator scapula muscle was over supporting the shoulder and this could be the cause of the ongoing pains felt?
Any idea what it could be?
As I said, the x-rays have apparently found nothing and the client has had this issue for over 5 years with a dull ache type pain emenating from within the right shoulder so I'm a little at a loss as to what to suggest other than trying to strengthen the muscles and having regular maintenance massage?
Anyone come across the snap crackle and pop effect before?