Post op shoulder blade pain

[Bill's mom]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about pain in the shoulder blade area.

Bill is 3 weeks post op today. Last night I asked how his back felt and he said that his back felt fine but that his shoulder blades hurt. On a scale of 1-10, he said the pain was a 5. And, he said that they have hurt since his surgery. (I just never asked about them before.)

He did not have any rib removal, but he did have an S curve so he has a long (T3-L3) fusion with two rods.

I assume this is not unusual given what he's been through, but I am curious if anyone else has had pain in the shoulder blade area. (It appears to be muscles in the shoulder blade area as opposed to the actual shoulder blades.)

Other than the pain, he is doing very well. I anticipate his going back to school half days by the end of next week. (Something that does make him sad.)

I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks.

Susan

[susannajon]

Hi Susan,

I remember seeing a few post-op concerns about shoulder pain on the board. I think doctors say it's because of the change in the patient's posture, and the muscles adjusting to their new position. I remember in particular a post by jachar about her daughter Nicole having shoulder pain after surgery, and their doctor said it was a common complaint. You might consider checking with her and seeing how long it took to stop hurting.

I hope Bill is feeling better soon! I wish you guys the best as he prepares to return to the “real world”.

Susanna

[Bill's mom]

Hi Susanna,

Thanks for answering so quickly and your words of encouragement.

I had reviewed some of the older messages on the board prior to posting, but had totally missed Jachar's posts. So thanks for that info.

Susan

[jc3]

hi susanna

did you try a search where you can put Jachar's name in and all the posts that he was involved in will come up? Just a thought
jennifer

[Bill's mom]

Jennifer,

Susan and Susanna gets confusing, huh?

I did do a search on Jachar and found what Susanna was talking about.

Thanks,
Susan

[jc3]

sorry susan, yes it does get confusing. so sorry. I did know who i was talking to though. Glad you found what you were looking for. What did it say? I'm looking for a search on when nicole stands it looks like her shoulders are forward. She wasn't looking like that in the beginning. My husband thinks its because she's tensing. I hope so. I am going to ask the dr. about this on monday.
jennifer

[Bill's mom]

Jennifer,

She said that their doctor said that the shoulder blade pain was NOT abnormal. I did get an email from the surgeon's assistant and he also said it was OK and somewhat expected as long as there was no redness and that Bill hadn't fallen or anything like that (which he hasn't).

Jachar also mentioned that her Nicole was hunched over, but that the doctor didn't think it was too much and it might just be from being in pain. So, you might want to do a search on Jachar (as you suggested I do) and see what she says. It probably would make you feel better - reinforcing that it's somewhat normal.

Susan

P.S. - I did PM you this morning to tell you about his shoulder blades. I thought that would make you feel better about Nicole also.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Susan...

Sorry that I didn't see your post earlier. Post op shoulder blade pain is VERY common. I'm told that just about everyone who has a long fusion that starts in the area of T2 to T5 has the pain.

I had the pain after surgery and it bugged the s**t out of me for a long time. In my case, it wasn't that it was terribly painful (it wasn't), but that it seemed to last a long time. It was about three years after surgery when I finally realized that I rarely had the pain any more. (I was 42 at the time of my surgery, so it may have been longer because of my age.) I can tell you that I was able to minimize the pain by keeping my shoulders back and my head up. If I was working on something that required me to have my head down, even slightly, (like working with something on my desk or my lap) I could cause the pain. Stopping the activity didn't immediately make the pain go away, but it would go away after a short while.

Hope that helps. Please tell Bill that the pain won't last forever.

Regards,
Linda

[Bill's mom]

Thanks for the information Linda. Your insights are always so helpful.

Susan

[phaden]

Many of the girls over on Spinekids describe shoulder blade pain after their surgeries. There have been suggestions of hot water bottles and extra pillows for support when sitting -- just ordinary palliative stuff.

Patricia
New Zealand

[jachar]

Jennifer,

Nichole was hunching too after surgery. I was concerned about it too. We are now (I have to count) almost 2 months post op and she is hunching a lot less now. I think it was that she was holding herself in a guarded way to try and avoid any pain. She is walking more like her normal self again.

She does still have shoulder pain. She even asks me to rub her shoulder area gently and that helps. Sometimes it feels like there is a kink in there she says. Advil does help, but she rarely wants to take any.

On a different note, her bottom curve which was compensatory to her big curve prior to surgery apparently changed from the 2 week post op xray to the 6 week xray. He stopped the fusion at T12 and had originally told us he didn't go lower because of the mobility issue and he felt it had a low chance of getting worse. I guess there was change and rotation, he is watching it closely, but thinks her body is just "settling" and balancing itself out. We will just have to wait and watch. I hope it doesn't get worse because I really don't want Nichole to have to go through any of this again.

Jaci

[jc3]

jaci
thank you so much for writing. I did do a search on some of your posts about the shoulders and saw that you did write about them, but i never found out if it turned out to be anything to be worried about. We are going to the dr. on monday and i will ask the dr. about it. When my nicole was first home from the hospital i noticed that her shoulders were not hunched and after about a week or so it seemed to have started. So it kind of makes me think that she is walking guarded as you said because of the pain. I hope, i don't need any other problems. I didn't realize that your daughter was only 2 months post op. She sounds to be doing good. Is she back at school? I hope everything goes okay with your daughter i can understand you not wanting to do this again! Let me know how she is doing and thank you so much for writing i appreciate it.
jennifer

[mamakay]

Hello all,
Well Monday we went for the post op checkup. We about flooded away and blew away getting there!!(Tx weather..)
We made the 3 hour trip and it was hard on Stephanie, she is still on Tylenol 3 and sometimes Valium.
Yes Jennifer she has big time shoulder pain ALL the time. Her hip graft doesn't seem to bother her as much. But now for the scarey part... we discovered over the weekend her incison up towards her neck is not healing and splitting apart!!!!! It looks bad.You can see pretty FAR IN!!!!!!
So we HAD to get to that appt.
The Dr said she is having a reaction to the stiches inside so now she is on antibiotics and we are sending digital pics of it to him and going back in a week. Meanwhile covering that part and on antibiotics.
This is one of the things I feared.So now recovery is just as scarey as the surgery, also he said to take the other steri strips off now. Yea right... Iam scared to do that bc it's not like the incision is totally closed !!!Has anyone else taken off all the strips and bandages at the 3 week point? Plus this DOES HURT you know..
I'm feeling alone and helpless here as my husbands thinks I should just rip them off right now!! I feel she is in enough stress w/o putting her through more torture.
Mamakay...frustrated and scared.

[jachar]

Jennifer,

Yes, Nichole is in school. They allowed her to go back at 4 weeks. I fully expected to go pick her up early for awhile, but she stayed all day from the beginning. She was VERY tired that first week back, but has built back her stamina. (for the most part!) I hope your Nicole recovers quickly. It is hard for everyone, but I think it is especially hard on the parents (usually the MOM!!) because we are so worried about everything that COULD happen. They are our "babies"!! Keep in touch!

Mamakay,
OUCH! How scary! I would be afraid to take off the strips too if part of the incision was already splitting. They told me to let Nichole's fall off naturally, which we did until the 6 week appointment - they took the rest of them off then. Her back was numb so she didn't feel it. She was whimpering when they told her they were going to do it and as she was protesting, they did it and were done before she even knew the did the first one!! She laughed when she found out they were done. Keep us posted on this.

Jaci

[susannajon]

Mamkay,

I can't even imagine being in your shoes. I have to say that's one of my biggest fears in taking our daughter to a doctor so far away for surgery. Why don't you ask the doc if the steri-strips can wait a week until you go back, and let him take them off. I am so allergic to those darn things. I've had them once to close an incision, and they were torture. I could not wait to get them off. does it look like they are irritating her skin? If not, maybe he'll let you wait.

If he says no, the strips come off easiest if they are wet, so have her take her pain meds and a shower. Slow steady pulling should do the trick, and if a strip won't come off the wound area, just trim the strip part that did come loose so it's not hanginging and catching on stuff, but I wouldn't force it. Don't put alcohol or anything else on her back. It hurts and slows healing.

Hang in there!

Susanna

[jc3]

mamakay
i can't believe that happened to you. I definitely would not take the steri strips off myself especially is she is crying and does not want you to do it. I would wait another week until you go to see the dr. Now i'm scared to look at nicole's, but i am going to check hers. Our dr. told us to let the steri strips fall off on their own. I hope when we go on monday he isn't going to pull them off she is going to flip out if he does. No one can even touch her back. She doesn't even like when i look at it.
I feel bad for you and don't worry everything will be okay. I don't know which is harder being a wreck before the surgery or going through the recovery. Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing. We're here for you.
jennifer

[Carmell]

Another suggestion about steri-strips (we do this every six months) - at 2-3 weeks post-op, I rub bacitracin ointment on the steri-strips before Braydon goes to bed. Within a day or two (especially when he showers) the steri-strips fall right off. Many fall off in bed while he's sleeping. If the steri-strips don't fall off within 3-4 days, I put another treatment of bacitracin on the incision. I've never needed to do more than 2 episodes. Braydon HATES tape of any kind. Steri-strips are PAINFUL when pulled off dry.

I hope everyone is doing well. I know its hard, but you can do it.

My best,

[susannajon]

Carmel, that's a great idea! I've used baby oil to get a stubborn band-aid off. I guess the oil breaks down the adhesive?

mamakay, hope you and Stephane are hanging in there. Let us know what the doc said.

Susanna

[blairf83]

I had my surgery done a year ago, and had similar pain.
It was from the muscles readjusting.
However, my pain continued, so I was put on a muscle relaxer and did physical therapy (massage and gentle stretching three days a week) starting at 6 months post op. It helped a lot...