Layers of Pain

I picture them as cobwebs­ — layer upon layer of cobwebs — binding my muscles, tying them to my bones, pinching sensitive nerves, but unlike cobwebs they are not diaphanous and fragile. These are bands of scar tissue, solid and persistent flesh, and I have them all over my body, palpable reminders of all the times I have misused my muscles over the years: the too-heavy load of books or groceries I just had to carry, the meetings that caused my neck and shoulders to tense up for an hour or more, the overly ambitious stretch in yoga class. 

Up until last year I wasn’t particularly aware of scar tissue as a problem. About a year ago, I started getting pains in my upper arms while doing weight-lifting routines. For a while, I backed off on intensity, thinking that these were injuries that would heal by themselves. I tried heat and ice. Finally, after about six months of no improvement, my personal trainer suggested that I go to a chiropractor, a new experience for me.

The chiropractor turned out to be a man in his early thirties, a serious athlete, who has had more than his share of serious injuries. When he asked me to raise my straight arms from my sides to the highest point possible over my head, he was horrified at the condition of my shoulders. I couldn’t get to the top position and I couldn’t straighten my arms. (Years ago I had had a bad injury to my left shoulder, described in this post, and later to my right, the most overworked side because I am right-handed.) Over a number sessions, this movement improved until he was fairly satisfied with it. But I still had the pain in my arms and rotating my arms forward in a circular motion hurt my shoulders. By now the pain was bad enough that it was waking me up at night.

To treat the scar tissue in my shoulders, arms and legs, the chiropractor used two approaches: myofascial release therapy (MFR), where he presses firmly into tight areas, and active release technique (ART), where he presses into a tight area while I move my arm across a prescribed path. This process ranges from mildly uncomfortable to quite painful, but the benefits have been substantial. I can now sleep at night without pain, though my shoulders and arms are sometimes stiff when I first get up. I am starting to lift weights again. My range of motion is much better but still needs work, especially the right shoulder and arm.

All complex human relationships, especially marriages and doctor-patient interactions, require a constant readjusting of expectations. The chiropractor and I had both anticipated that my situation would be resolved in a matter of weeks, months at the most. It has now been over a year. During that time, symptoms have come and gone. For a while, I had trigger thumb in my right thumb; it lasted for a couple of months, then went away. At one point I mysteriously injured a nerve in my left leg and was hobbling around for a while. We worked on the left leg and that got better too.

Why is all of this happening to me right now? Age is probably a factor; I am 71 now. Another possibility is that in 2016 I stopped taking Premarin, an estrogen supplement I had been happily using for 36 years. Changes in hormones can affect muscles and nerves so this transition may have turned a tolerable situation into one requiring treatment. In any case, I am grateful that these therapies are available to me. Ironically, insurance won’t pay for interventions that are actually restoring me but it would pay for pain medication, which I certainly want to avoid!