Odd arm pain. Scoliosis related?

[cello_mom]

DD14 has started complaining of pain in her left arm, specifically her fore arm. She says it feels as though there is no blood flow to it and it really hurts. Obviously there is plenty of blood flow to it; it looks and feels perfectly normal. Sometimes the pain seems to start at the left shoulder and radiate down the left arm. It sounds to me like a pinched nerve. The pain can last for hours and is unrelated to any activity. She 50+ curved thoracic. Our next visit is the end of March to schedule surgery. A trip to the docs for this seems unwarranted as it isn't ongoing enough to schedule around.

[titaniumed]

Sounds like this could be from the neck......the nerves in the neck connect to the arms and hands....

Best to have a doctor look at things.

Ed

[rohrer01]

Cello_mom,

I have horrific arm pain from my scoliosis. So, YES, it can be from that. I've had it since I was quite young, like 16.
I had an incident a few weeks back where my arm hurt so badly and it went from my shoulder down. When it tightened up around my neck, making it painful to breathe, I called the doctor.

By the time I got there my hand had started to swell. It was caused by the muscles in my shoulder girdle clamping down so hard that they were pinching nerves and cutting off the blood flow to my whole left arm. The doctor did three targeted trigger point injections to loosen the muscles. Within 20 minutes, the pain in my arm was gone and the discoloration and swelling in my hand was gone.

You should take her to the doctor for her arm pain. Take her to someone VERY knowledgeable in trigger point injections. They will be able to loosen the muscles that are causing her arm to hurt. If you are near a major medical center, I would call the Neurosciences department and ask them if there is anyone there specializing in Dystonia or that does frequent trigger point injections (usually a PM&R physician - Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation). You don't have to have the "disease" Dystonia to have episodes of it. It is the body's response to the curvature. If you tell them that your daughter is in a lot of pain, they should get you in the same day. If SHE feels like the blood flow is being cut off, it probably is, just not to the degree that you can see. There is help. Please call.

Best wishes to your daughter. I can empathize with the arm pain!