Pulled Trapezius Muscle

Oh, he also has a swelling over his right clavicle. the doctor said that was inflammation of his muscle.

Jeepster,

Run your husband a hot hot bath and sit him in there for a bit then apply ice at his areas of pain straight after, this I promise will give relief.

Jase....

Also when you call your doctor just remind them of their Duty of Care to a patients pain and discomfort.

Jase...

Hello Jeepster,

Welcome to this forum.

Sorry to read about the pain your husband is in. Forgive me, however, would you please tell me where the trap muscle is located.? Thanks

I am VERY glad that your husband went to his doctor as soon as he could. Most unfortunate that the doctor on call would not refill the prescription. May I suggest that you call again today and speak with the doctor who is on call today. Hopefully it will be another doctor. AND even if the same doctor I would twist her arm well so that at least your husband has some relief until he sees his doctor on Monday.

Do I understand correctly that your husband will have his injection tomorrow. Sure hope so.

I'm with you regarding Tylenol. I take it, but I've never been able to tell that it did anything for me.

I hope that by now the muscle relaxant is helping some.

I hope others can give some advice.

Please let us know how things go for your husband. You are a most concerned and carrying wife. WONDERFUL!!!!

RichT

You need not worry. Muscle pulls of the severity you are mentioning can take up to 2 years to heal. So you will have to wait and your husband should not induldge in movements which require the muscle. Especially lifing things from the groud or shrugging the shoulders.

Ugh! I cannot tell my husband there might be a 2 year recovery! Especially if workers comp won't cover the injury. My husband is a mechanic. On Saturday he changed a differential in one car (he said he had 2 others helping him left it) and also a motor in another. He's done this hundreds of times probably. There was no immediate pain, which is what will make it difficult to prove it happened at work. The doctor even said so. When he came home from work he fell asleep on the couch for about an hour. Shortly after waking he felt a mild pain in his shoulder. Well, it has just become worse since. Sunday he couldn't move his arm well and Sunday evening I noticed the swelling on his right clavicle (collar bone) where he was complaining of a major pain. I just don't know. Last night he took 1000 mg tylenol, 2 muscle relaxants (as directed) and he had the 1/2 hour hot salt water soak. He sad that something was actually relieving the pain somewhat. I wonder if it was the soak. I am going to try to get him to take one twice daily. It can't hurt right?

As far as the doctor on call, I am leaving that up to my husband. He said that he wants to be in a lot of pain come Monday morning and tell off his doctors office and get arrested! Well, I don't see how that will really help the situation! I am more willing to go downtown and find a drug dealer to get some percasets (I am mostly kidding!).

Oh, the trapezius muscle is located from your shoulder down part of your back (triangle shaped). He is going in for a second steroid injection Tuesday morning.

Thank you!

Hello Jeepster,

Playsafe is so right. It takes TIME for a muscle injurty to heal. Much longer than our mind thinks or wants to think it does.

Now to the "lecture" - Jeepster, your husband, and I know also you, may not want to hear this, but I truly hope you do "hear".

Your husband has a choice - Either stop lifting and doing the things he did, like on Saturday, even though I know it is the work he loves, OR risk PERMANANT damage and disability. One either gives the body time to heal with proper care so one can in time do what you like to do, OR risk it all and never again do what you enjoy doing.

The choice is his (and yes, yours too).

I truly hope he "hears".

RichT

Here is the muscle.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:nL5TdG 8ebYPMVM:http://www.science-


Muscles take so much long to heal then a broken bone. Depending in the severity of the injury could take a very long time to heal and is very, very painful. Going back to you husbands type of job is not the best thing in the world. Healing takes time and rest and mucles respond well to heat. Moist or Dry. No creams please. Rip off!

I am also working through a pulled trap muscle. One thing that everyone has right is that you need to relax the muscle. I no longer have a physically demanding job, having traded my wrenches for computer programming skills, but I understand what nobody on this forum does. Sometimes you just can't give up your job requirements. One thing I would suggest, though, is that your husband switch from the hands-on greasemonkey job to a management role, or even a trainer role. It is inevitable that he would end up being unable to be a functioning mechanic at some point in his life. The natural thing is to either teach others to be mechanics or to become their boss. Even if he just does this for the time it takes for his trap to heal, it will be worth it. By the way, I pulled mine lifting weights at the gym. I can't even swim because of the pain. I alternate between an ice pack on the neck, just above the C6 vertebra, and a heating pad on the muscle. Minor stretching exercises and of all things, pushups tend to help a bit, as does my regular visit to the chiropractor. Keep working on it and try to take it easy. It will heal.

Having had trap injuries myself rest is the best answer. But also being in a labor intensive occupation (construction) and being a gym rat myself that doesn't always leave me that luxury. I went to chiropractors and Dr. with no avail. The best thing I found was massage therapy. There are many different types many of the therapist covering many different types themselves. One type my therapist covers is Thai which includes stretching into the massage session. Ive been in chronic pain for the last 4 years, and so far this is the only working solution to my issues. Pills are temporary fixes, and the chiro will do nothing if your muscles are not relaxed and willing to allow the adjustment to stay. I hope your husband feels better and my little bit of opinion will help.

Look, I might be a 20 year old college student, but my field is Criminal Justice, and it might not strike many as a medical-related field but after injuring the LIGAMENTS surrounding the trapezius, I learned what to do in steps and how to make it better without surgery OR injections.

I mean seriously? I was pissed at not getting some oxycodone 8 months ago, either, in fact i got naproxen, which is the generic ALEVE! I was on the sh** for 15 days, 2wce a day...and honestly I thought it was BS not being able to stretch or work out and roll around on a tennis ball and having to eat bananas and drink gallons of water while laying around like...well a typical American...

but to be even more honest, when reading how "American" we ALL sound with the snooty excuse me''s?? and you WONT give me drugs? [talk] ...it seems apparent we don''t want to pull a hindu, chinese, swedish, or even body builder (like i did) and work it out OURSELVES. Hell, no lie, if I had a wife, she''d have gotten carpal tunnel from the deep elbow massages I would have asked for in the mornings from being so stiff...

I injured my trap doing excersises the wrong way, which went to teach me the most important lesson of all when doing anything GYM...FORM, FORM ...and FORM...

From what I read above, when under a car wrenching around, make sure shoulders aren''t being overused, and arms aren''t above the head for too long...here''s a rule of thumb, if your hands are over your head, bring them the hell down with any sort of neck injury, you''re straining it whether holding materials or not...also make sure elbows are generally close to your body to let the blood flow not deviate and heal itself through INFLAMMATION...yes, the knots, the bulging, the trigger points...DO NOT stretch these out...tie a knot in a rubber band...NOW "stretch" it to undo it? Makes no sense, Scientifically

If you take Tylenol, it''s a pain reliever, not an anti-inflammatory...also makes NO sense, you''re building a tolerance, and using your liver for the excretion (just like alcohol) when unecessary. Leave drugs alone, and find a human elbow knuckles palms and fingers to do some real damage to the ALREADY inflamed scar tissue ON your muscles...

Get a foam pillow for 35$ and never look back in time in denial or STRESS...even if you can''t afford the whole bed with the tempur-pedic stuff ...

DO NOT STRESS, IT WILL TAKE TIME, cortisone or not, aleve or not, painkillers and skelaxin or not...it will take time to exponentially call such a large muscle "healed"...by the way, it may NEVER heal depending on the amount of damage and time it has gone un-kneaded..

Ok, I just came across this forum and decided to read it and see if I could get any answers to my trapezius muscle upper left shoulder pain. I have had this for 13 years. I was in the military and was medically retired in 2006. I have all kinds of treatments to help, but nothing has worked. I still have massages, I have a tens unit that I use everyday, and I even do actupuncture. I am tired of the pain. I have a sleep number bed and foam pillows, but even those don't help anymore. I can not be on any painkillers or anti-inflammatory meds anymore. Doctors tell me I have to live with it for the rest of my life, I say screw that. But logout43 is right my may never heal!

Man all you guys are making me really worried! I pulled my trapezius muscle right near my spine and the doc put me on muscle relaxers and "Mobec", I haven't started them yet but I am in so much pain! I'm worried that I might have done something more then just "pulling" it, like maybe torn it off completely or something. What kind of scan can I request so they can actually visibally see the muscle and make sure its not severly injured?

Man all you guys are making me really worried! I pulled my trapezius muscle right near my spine and the doc put me on muscle relaxers and "Mobec", I haven't started them yet but I am in so much pain! I'm worried that I might have done something more then just "pulling" it, like maybe torn it off completely or something. What kind of scan can I request so they can actually visibally see the muscle and make sure its not severly injured?

If you're looking for a drug free way to manage pain,recover and relax the muscles try a TENS Machine, Really helped with my Traps and Shoulders.

nextlevel_hfl.Webstore.com

Hi, Found this forum - thread and thought i would post my experiences over the last week.

On Tuesday I helped lift a lawn mower off a trailer, not a big deal. I didn't feel any pain. Went to bed, Woke up Wednesday and found i COULD NOT move my arm, as a matter of fact, moving at all seemed to make my arm hurt worse. I'm taking severe pain. I managed to pull myself to together, went to work ( St ocker for Dollar General ) and found its worse than i thought. Left early went home and slept, woke up, cried, repeated process until Friday came around. I went to the doctor, And i had no idea my back was so swollen, how could i of? I couldn't turn to see it. The doctor gave me 1 pain shot, and 1 muscle relaxer shot in each ass cheek. Today Is now Thursday, A week and 2 days later and im still in the same amount of pain. He gave me Flexeral and some cheap ass anti Inflammatory pills, they seem to help in the morning, but by noon, even after i take my next dose, the pain comes back. I plan on following up with another doctor on Friday, And i will post what happens. This is a very painful spasm and i hope you all feel better.
Thank you

ask for an ultrsound to seeif anything is torn in your shoulder.