I dont know what I did to have this happen, but I was working a LOT when it started. I am a carpet/vinyl installer and do a lot of heavy lifting and moving stuff around, which isnt that easy sometimes with my 130 pound frame.
I started getting this stiffness in my upper/mid trapezius and when that would happen I would take some time off work and it would get better. Then it got to the point after doing that a couple times that I lost the ability to use my arm for a while. Every muscle from the right side of my back and neck to my elbow atrophied on me. I couldnt so much as lift my arm up.
I ended up clearing my schedule and going to the emergency room. The doctor there assumed that I had a torn trapezius and to take it easy for a while, so I did. After it didnt get any better for a week or two I ended up going to see my doctor. We both assumed that it could be a torn rotator cuff so he took some xrays of my shoulder and said it all looked fine then sent me off for an MRI to check the rotator cuff tendons. Everything was fine there.
I then got my neck xrayed and didnt see anything new there, although I do have a previous rupture betweeen C6-C7 that I got back in january of 1997, which has been over 7 years ago and comparing this xray to the last one that I had, it looks much better now.
Anyway, I regained most of my strength within the first month I took off (I took 2 months off from work and just relaxed for most of it) and then by the end of the second month the pain was gone and I felt fine and could do everything normally again.
I went back to work and within a couple weeks it has started to come back. It is just tingling now, pretty much all of the time, but I am doing my best to let it relax.
I have been going though this problem for the past few months and cannot figure it out. I have been to the ER and my family practitioner so far. I have had xrays of my neck and shoulder taken and I have had an MRI of my shoulder.
The problem always seems to start with my trapezius getting extremely tight to where it limits my movement of my neck and then it progresses to this tingling in my shoulder, which seems to be isolated in the rotator cuff area (supraspinatus and infraspinatus), bicep, deltoid, tricep and trapezius. There is always that constant tightness of the trapezius though.
I am going to see an orthopedic surgeon on tuesday that specializes in neck and shoulder injuries so I am hoping that he can figure something out. If not, I plan on going to see a neurologist to see if they can figure it out.
I am leaning towards a pinched nerve now. I seem to be doing a very good job at eliminating other possibilities thus far, but it is getting very annoying and I would like some professional input on this, or even some input from somone who has ever had something like this.
I am tired of hurting and I want to go back to work and make some money, but that seems to be hard with this condition.
Sorry for the long post, but that is about as short as I could make it and still get pretty much everything I needed to say out there.