massage can't cure everything

...or can it? Dum dum DUM.

I don't remember how much I've told you people about my right arm. But if you already know all this, too bad. A little refresher never hurt anyone. Just think of it as "...previously on The Adventures..."

Two weeks ago my Superior Immune System failed me and I had, briefly (see, it's still superior), a very bad cold. Wednesday and Thursday of that week, I spent more or less all my time at home reading on my kindle and all my time at work quarantined in my office, using the mouse on this computer. I managed, with repetitive thumb motion, to give myself a nasty case of right elbow tendinitis by Memorial Day weekend. It really hurt, and I am not a pain wuss. I could feel the tendon inflamed, but it was also sending throbbing pain through my whole forearm, and less so, in the other direction up to my shoulder. I took lots of ibuprofen, kept icing it, slathered it with arnica, had Marcy put a magnet on it, and babied it in the gym, while giving massages, and in everyday life--kept off the damn kindle. By Thursday after Memorial Day, so a week or so after it started, it felt much better.

So last Thursday, with it feeling much better, I went to the gym to do cardio after work, and the half-assed abs that I do, and stretching. While on the mats, I had the brilliant (<--that's effing sarcasm, kids) idea to see if I could with, my newly-restored-to-health elbow, bust out some pushups. I know, I know. I got to number twelve, got an owwy in my shoulder and said to myself, shit, shouldn'ta oughtn'ta done that. But didn't think much of it.

Friday with my elbow feeling fine and my shoulder/upper arm just a tiny bit grumpy***, I went to the gym after work to lift. And seeing as how I am all peppy because I am bulking (heh) I shredded my legs, going up on almost all my lifts and doing a few things I really hate but really should be doing. When I went on to upper body, however, I was weak. My right arm, especially, was weak. I had to go down on some things, which never makes me happy. That's weird, I thought. I didn't even have to go down in weights when my elbow was acting up and now that it's better, I do? Huh. I attributed it to preexhausting myself with the killer leg workout.

Over the weekend my upper arm and shoulder were hurting, though nowhere NEAR the kind of pain the tendinitis had caused, and I'd occasionally get some tingling in my arm. What was more upsetting was that Sunday in the gym my right arm was even weaker. Oh fuck, I said to myself, you have done something very bad to your brachial plexis, you moron, you. Then I said, lalala, no I haven't, and I can't hear you.

On Monday I realized that when I flexed my neck, i.e. brought my chin to my chest, and reached a certain point in the movement, I would get a shooting pain and tingling in my armpit and down my right arm. Aha, a clue! I hauled out all my anatomy books to try to figure out exactly where my brachial plexis was getting impinged. I came to the conclusion that it was my scalenes. Your scalenes--there are three--are muscles on the side of your neck through which the brachial nerve passes, and one of their primary functions is neck flexion. This seemed curious because a.) I don't know what that had to do with the ill-fated set of pushups that appeared to start the whole thing and b.) my neck didn't feel any tighter to me than it usually does. I mean, M2 could tell you, my neck is never what one would call "not tight" but nothing seemed to be in spasm. My anatomy books also pointed to pec minor as a major culprit in brachial plexus compression and that seemed more likely: I went digging around under pec major and, yes, it felt pretty ouchy on palpation, and it seemed more likely to be injurable when doing pushup.

I decided to book a massage for Wednesday. I'm getting a massage from M2 in a couple weeks, but this seemed like I shouldn't wait. So I booked a massage I would actually have to pay money for. (I know, ::gasp::) I scheduled it with a guy at the place I had gone to on New Year's Eve, not knowing anything about him, just that his open time coordinated with the time I wanted to get my massage. Crapshoot. So off I went yesterday afternoon to tell him the tale of woe I just told you all. Less colorfully.

I have to say, for taking a crapshoot, I really liked this guy. I also was fairly sure, though I didn't ask, that he went to the same massage school I did. Just certain things he did and the order in which he did them were straight from our curriculum. But anyway, he thought my traps and levator were super tight and he spent a lot of time finding the trigger points in there and doing static compression. Also neck ROM and stretching, some of which was not comfortable. So what I liked about him was that he had a really nice quality to his touch and a really nice manner, such that even though he was doing all this NMT work which is semi-painful, I found myself dozing off at points in that way where you don't think you are sleeping but you find yourself with your thoughts a million miles away, then suddenly arouse and realize, oh yeah, I'm getting a massage.

Anyway, I tipped him very well and told him it was great, but I left feeling like while it was good, and that work on my trap and levator really needed to be done, it wasn't going to do much for the impingement. He didn't do any real specific scalene work nor did he go anywhere near my pec. (Which, honestly, male therapist, female client they don't know? They stay way away. Whereas M2 and I poke around in each other's armpits with abandon when necessary, completely without fear of accidental boob gropage.) My arm felt the same when I left as when I came in. Worth a try, I thought, but massage can't fix everything.

However! When I woke up this morning, I realized that flexing my neck, while still sending twinges into my armpit and down the arm, was NOT causing the same intensity of nerve pain and tingling. And my neck ROM was better too. Calming down those trigger points in my trap and levator apparently calmed down the scalenes as well.

The moral of this story? Go get a massage. Tip well. And when you injure yourself, do not do stupid-ass shit just because you "think" you're better. Rest is not a sin. Learn from my mistakes and successes, grasshoppers.

Also? I bought shorts yesterday! And we have a new (temporary) cat! There may be pictures of one or both of these things later.

xoxo

***That was my MT's phrase yesterday. When he'd find a trigger point and I'd wince or grunt, he'd say, "Is that grumpy?" I thought it was cute.