Burning pain under shoulder blade, tingling in arm and pinky

[efinch]

For about 5 years I've had recurring pain under the medial section of my left shoulder blade. It is not constant, it seems to come and go, but every time it recurs it seems to get worse. It is not a sharp pain, more like a deep burning. Within the past year, during times when my shoulder is acting up, I also experience, pain, numbness and tingling in my left arm and hand (particularly in my pinky and ring finger), and my shoulder joint has begun to pop and catch. What I don't understand is that there seems to be no trigger for these episodes of pain (no lifting, no throwing, etc.), nor was there any initial injury 5 years ago. It just started to hurt. Do you have any ideas as to what could be wrong?

[Kalvin]

No, I don't, supposedly that's how you treat a pinched nerve. Injections might help, might not. They might be able to locate where its pinched with an EMG.

[efinch]

I asked my doctor about it once. He said it was probably just a tight rhomboid muscle and gave me a few stretches to do. I did them (and still do when I'm having an issue) pretty regularly, but this actually seems to make the tingling and such worse. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference for the pain in my shoulder. I realize it could be a pinched nerve, but do you know of anything that helps with that other than stretching? (Because apparently that doesn't work...)

[Kalvin]

Might still be a nerve issue, have you seen a Doctor about this?

[efinch]

No, no neck or lower back problems. Just my upper back, and only in the region under the "wing" of my left scapula. (I guess that at this point it also involves the left arm, but my arm doesn't hurt. It just feels like it's fallen asleep.)

[Kalvin]

The trigger could be your neck, do you have any problems there?