Question
I fell "up" my stairs, with my hands in my jacket pockets. I landed on my right shoulder, and the next day developed a good size bruise. As it faded, an undescribable pain starting "inside" my right shoulder blade, ran down both arms, and into my hands. My elbows are very sensitive to touch and I get an "electric shock"type pain if they are bumped, or touched. Same thing if I bump my fingertips, and the pain in both areas stays in that general area, and is very brief. The pain in my arms is constant, and varies from throbbing, to aching, to a burning sensation. Occasionally when they hurt really bad I'll get a searing pain, that rapidly shoots back and forth from elbow, thru my forearm, into hands...ending in pad at base of thumb. (ping pong ball like) lasting 20 to 30 minutes sometimes. (seems longer) Once my entire right half "fell asleep", and often have to shake my hands out, due to them falling asleep. If I am able to "wake them", it eases...if not all the above described pain happens. I'm a 26yr old female. Work as bank teller. Healthy. I take Sertraline once daily (100mg) and Xanax as needed. Stand 5-5, and weigh 160ish. Can't sleep, desperate for relief, cant afford Dr. visit.

Answer

Hanna Somatic Educatio Hello, Carly,

Without personal examination, I can speak only generally about the way out of your condition.

All injuries trigger reflexive muscular contractions related, by location, to the pain of injury.  Reflexive muscular contractions often trap and squeeze nerves nearby, leading to the kinds of symptoms you describe.

In the case of your fall, two possibilities exist:  (1) that your shoulder muscles contracted and are pressing on nerves that go down your arms into your hands, and (2) that the fall prompted muscular contractions in your neck, which compress those nerves near their exit from the spinal column.

Without knowing exactly where you contracted, it's not practical to recommend specific exercises to free those muscles.  What I can say is that you can undo those muscular contractions by means of movement-training exercises or sessions with a clinical somatic educator.

May I recommend you read this article:

http://somatics.com/SLEx2.htm

and this one:

http://somatics.com/recovery_from_injury.htm

If you wish, you may arrange a consultation by telephone with me to convey more details.

http://somatics.com/consultation.htm

Under these conditions, that's the best I can do.

regard,
Lawrence Gold