Moving through pain
 

The more I regain feeling in my neck/shoulders, the more I wish I wasn't regaining feeling in my neck/shoulders. wow. ow. apparently the yoga is really helping stretch and loosen them, as is acupuncture (went for my first session on Friday, go again this Sat), but the pain and soreness is UNREAL. I know it's helping because I am waking up with more and more feeling (usually I wake up without feeling in both arms, and it takes a few seconds/minutes to get pins and needles and get them to move, and a few more for them to feel "normal"). So I know I need to work through this and I do believe that eventually I will have normal working loose, functioning shoulders! but ****, in the interim, OUCH!!!!!!

It's cumulative of lots and lots of issues over the years that I've ignored repeatedly, coupled with a few incidents such as getting run over by a horse and pinned under a metal gate, yanked by a stallion resulting in whiplash, fractured lower vert when dumped by my one horse this summer, and overall I've carried my stress in my shoulders and neck for years. I just decided I should probably start doing something about it since I can stand in the shower with the cold water off completely and not notice if the water is on my back (nerve endings shut down much??). But man waking those nerve endings back up....sheesh!

waking up without feeling was getting worse and worse taking longer to get circulation going. Massage and chiro weren't even helping - a deep tissue massage from an amazing masseuse friend wasn't even leaving me sore and in a day or two I was right back to where I was before, locked up and no feeling.

I am glad yoga and acupuncture are helping, and I definitely have feeling, but really hoping the light at the end of the tunnel is sooner rather than later!

Anyone else been through anything like this? What did you guys do to help????? how long did it take? I know it will take me a while, because i'm really messed up, just looking for kindred stories here!

Oh my! I am sorry you have had this level of trouble in your arms and shoulders.

All I know is I had paralysis and numbness as a carry-over from severe nerve inflammation in my right arm which started suddenly 2 and a half years ago. I had some acupuncture treatments. I wasn't sure they were helping, and feel natural healing from my own system started to take over more.
All I know is that when things start to flow again it can hurt. Numbness is exactly that -numbness. Then when it starts to begin healing the feeling starts to come back and that can hurt a bit.
Now my arm doesn't feel pain at all. Two fingers are still slightly paralysed, but over the time have regained better mobility, and it doesn't bother me. They get terribly cold though! They are still partly numb. But no pain, and that's the best thing. The muscles regained their normal tone, but that took about a year or more.
I did no special things. Just carried on with everyday tasks regardless, and I think general movement helped things to re-balance.

I would say that some flooding of feeling back to where it had been numb before, and therefore more pain and sensitivity, is partly to be expected. But only you can tell if that is pathological or not. Instinct.
Have you had an MRI scan? Could there be a herniated cervical disc?

To build on this, I started cupping at my last treatment (this past Sat). Holy cow the old blood it brought up - I was bruised like I had been beaten, yet it felt good/looser, like post-massage soreness. My shoulders have a significantly improved range of motion and now I'm really looking forward to trying this next session on my lower back where I had a stagnant issue from this summer (hairline vert fracture that healed, but the muscle healed to a point and just stopped and hasn't gotten any better since no matter what I do).

I can't believe the difference already!!!

Good for you that its helping! It does wonders for many people where western medicine has failed them.