At Your Service

I love to meet the young and idealistic at the clinic. I find myself sitting back smiling and relishing the sheer conviction and absoluteness of the beliefs of those teens through their early twenties. They are here to change the world. 

Such a young man who I will describe as “A Force” came into the clinic, referred by his mother who had met the BritPT Crew at a needling event at a local yoga studio.

I was informed in an almost staccato style report that the client had been accepted to serve his country and that he would be leaving for Boot Camp in October. In order to prepare he had recently upped his performance in the gym. More weights, more exercises, more often. Overall he had experienced some tightening and soreness but after all. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.” So he continued. In the week prior to consultation he worked out with a friend, and in the spirit of their competing he essentially doubled his new level of work out. In one day. 

This young, idealistic and seemingly indestructible young man had “lost use of my arms”. He could not reach out for the shampoo to wash his own hair! let alone get a glass out of the cabinet. Pain on these types of motions was accompanied by an audible clunk, and sometimes tingling to the thumb. The gym was out of the question and panic was rising. 

On evaluation it was immediately apparent that he had a significant positional fault in both shoulders , more so on his dominant side. happily there was no evidence of a tear on muscle testing and the neurological screen was normal, so what had happened?

Simply, in targeting the same muscle groups without paying enough attention to the opposing muscles, he had subluxed his shoulders due to incredible muscular shortening!  Enough to somewhat displace the “ball from the socket” ! The same muscle, his pectorals had pressed down on the median nerve as it passed across the front of the shoulder and that caused the tingling. The clunk indicated the ball moving slightly more in, then out of its optimal position.

How would this have been handled in an orthopedic doctors office?

Given his complaints they may have started with an XRay, which may have not shown the issue as it is subtle in this medium. A shot of steroids or prescribed prednisone or NSAIDs. Next a nerve conduction study or images of the neck. If no improvement then we progress on to an MRI. All this would be scheduled over 2 weeks to a month.

At BritPT we treated the short muscle with dry needling. that day, the patient was with us for an hour. We re educated the patient re the need for a balanced workout AND for an increase in emphasis on stretching on specific musculature. I anticipated 3-4 visits needed, however, he never needed to return.

I spoke with the client who was sore but moving better 2 days later. He went off to compete in a Mud Run as scheduled a month later. I feel good about this young man following in his family traditions with his passion to serve his country. It was my honor to serve him.