Rhomboid muscle pain - 10 years with little relief

[Unemployed]

I have had chronic rhomboid muscle pain on the right side for 10 years, and have seen numerous MD's(MRI with no significant problem found), Chiropractors (Adjustments & pressure point message), Physical Therapists (waste of money) and a Neurologist that is currently performing acupuncture.  I self medicate with Ibuprofen, and sleep on an ice pack every night.  In addition, I lay on a baseball and roll over the rhomboid muscle while stretching to break up the spasms for some relief, the ball hits an area that feels like a rope that is in a horizontal position across the rhomboid. Pain radiates from the rhomboid up the right side of my neck, and down my right arm which includes the right shoulder.  Headaches are almost constant.
I will try anything at this point to resolve this issue; any help with this issue would be very much appreciated.

[stasely]

PLEASE PLEASE read HEALING BACK PAIN and THE MINDBODY PRESCRIPTION by John E. Sarno.  I posted this back in February.  I urge you to read these books. I AM 90% BETTER, and can live my life now, thanks to these books.  No therapies needed, nothing.  Just these books.  This problem has nothing to do with our backs, and everything to do with emotions and stress, and by recognizing this, you have the power to help it.  Read the books!

Here's what I wrote here back in February:
I have had the same rhomboid problem for 3.5 years.  Now my entire upper back and neck are in chronic spasm, and often my sides.  And I have been following this forum.

But after trying everything that everyone else here has tried, I FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE, and I hope you all take my advice.

We've all had tests done, and they all come back fine.  We may have a herniated disc, but that can't explain all the pain, and all the spasms. Even my doctors said that!  We've gone to physical therapy, chiropractors, acupuncture, massage, etc.  And nothing helps.

Last week I went to an osteopath doctor and she told me about a doctor (John E. Sarno) who has written several books on back pain and talks about something called TENSION MYOSITIS SYNDROME (TMS).  Something that affects a certain type of personality--people like us--active, high achieving people.  Basically what this entails is that all the repressed anger, anxiety, and other emotions that we avoid thinking about, get pushed so far back into our mind that our brain turns it into physical pain because they are not being dealt with.  

I know this may sound crazy to some of you, but it makes sense to me  now, since I have tried everything and there is no medical explanation for the problem.  After that visit to the doctor, I started reading HEALING BACK PAIN, by Sarno.  And the book describes the condition (better than I did above), who it affects, how it works and how to fix it (by getting to the root of the repressed emotions).  He gives several examples of patients of his who he has helped recover completely.  He says he has helped thousands of people.  He is located in New York City.  The other book by Sarno I was told to read is called THE MINDBODY PRESCRIPTION.  

I haven't finished the book yet, but some things I want to point out are that Sarno says not only muscle, but nerves and tendons and ligaments can be affected by TMS.  He says the muscles "that are susceptible to TMS are those in the back of the neck, the entire back, and the buttocks, known collectively as postural muscles."  (that's why we tend to think this is a postural problem).  He also mentions tennis elbow and rotator cuff disorder which some of you have mentioned, that tennis elbow often left in his patients and that a rotator cuff diagnosis may be TMS.

People that have posted here who do get relief from something, probably don't have TMS, but for the rest of is who have tried everything (and spent so much money!), this may be the answer.  Our doctors didn't tell us that our problem could be all stress/tension/emotion related, because they are trained to believe that a physical problem has a physical explanation, not a psychological one.  I hope you take this seriously and get those books or look up doctor Sarno's practice.  I have faith in this.  The worse our pain gets (to further distract us from what we are emotionally avoiding), the more disabled we become, and the more focused on the pain we become, until is takes over.  All this is talked about and explained in the book, and it makes so much sense, and like I said, it explains everything better than I do. I hope at least someone gets those books and will read them and post back.

[kmeoz]

I have had this same rhomboid problem since December 2008.  For the last three weeks I have taken a wheatgrass shot everyday.  I have also been using a chi machine for fifteen minutes every day for the last three weeks as well.  I kid you not my back is 70% better.  I read that wheatgrass can help with inflammation, that was the part of my muscle that would not seem to get better,and I was sick of taking ibuprofen.  I dare you to drink wheatgrass everyday for two weeks and see if it helps!!  Start at 1oz. and after two weeks bump up to two.  There are more than 30 benefits to taking wheatgrass.  After more than six months in excruciating pain I was willing to try anything, I'm really glad I did.  Drink wheatgrass!!!!!

[Maile777]

I read through all of the postings, and I think I have something new to add.  I live in Hawaii and suffer from right Rhomboid pain (a terrible burning pain).  I have started a treatment for the pain that is different from everyone here.  It is called Prolotherapy.  You should look it up online.  There is an MD on the Big Island of Hawaii that flies over to Oahu monthly to do the injections. Basically, there is a belief among those who practice prolotherapy that the pain in many areas of our body is coming from loose/weakened tendons/ligaments.  During prolotherapy, Dextrose is injected into the weakened ligament or tendon.  Dextrose is an irritant which causes inflammation.  The inflammation causes increased blood flow to the area.  The end result is hopefully a stronger and thicker ligament/tendon.  Many people have been helped by this procedure.  I haven't finished all of the injections yet so I can't give a full analysis, but this MD has been on the news here in Hawaii, and there have been a lot of very happy patients.  She treats the knees, hips, spine, shoulders, and back and pretty much anywhere there are ligaments and tendons.  Good Luck everyone.

[Ridic]

I am a 49-year-old mathematician who began to suffer for months with acute right rhomboid pain, quite severe. I attributed this to use of a computer mouse for the past 2 decades, and sought care from a chiropractor. A standard radiogram of my thoracic spine ruled out a boroken rib, and revealed some arthritis and minor scoliosis. I found some relief from TENS and my PCP put me on Vicoden. Increasingly, I could not sleep at night, the pain growing when I lay down to encompass my entire upper right back area. Increasingly, the pain shot down my right underarm and into my right forearm and wrist, which burned continuously. My Vicoden dosages approached lethal levels. My chiropractor referred me to a Pain Management physician, and I was lucky to find one who was young enough to take charge of things. He tried a local Lidocaine injection, which did not solve the problem. He added Neurontin to my meds and this let the Vicoden dosage stay sub-toxic. He tried a sleeping pill, which did not help. In my desperation to avoid liver failure, I found some Tranadol I'd purchased in Mexico. At low doses, it was not effective. But at higher doses, 300mg per day, it was beautiufully effective, frankly better than Vicoden or Percoset, and it is non-narcotic. The doc was happy to write Trmadol for me.. He sent me to Physical Therapy, and one month later the pain abated. My PT noted my thoracic spine continued to hurt even when the rhomboid pain had subsided- she "diagnosed" a nerve impingement. Then, one day later, I felt a "snap" at the base of my neck, and the pain turned back on, in full force. The doc ordered an MRI (finally), wjhich revealed 2 fully herniated/ruptured discs in my *cervical* spin, C4-5 and C5-6. Within 3 days, I had surgery, Anterior Cervical Spine Fusion x 2, and upon waking up the pain in my right arm was gone, forever. It's been 3 weeks, and if I stop my meds for 24 hours I still have pain in my thoracic spine but it is much less and, importantly, it does not overwhelm me at night. I'm on Tramadol 200mg (Ultram ER) BID (yes, I know) and nothing else. I'm pain-free. My neck is a bit stiff, of course.

The moral of the story is, fight your way thru the system to get an MRI. The Insurance Companies want you to try all manners of conservative therapies here, including spending your own money on holistic approaches. But my pain was exactly as so many of you described in here, and it turned out there was a huge structural defect in me that could never be massaged away, so to speak. Disc fragments compressed my spinal cord by more than 70%- my surgeon at the teaching hospital put my "textbook" MRI up on a screen in the OR so his students could see it.

The other moral is, try Ultram ER higher dose. It is as effective as an opioid, without the side effects, including the personality and mood issues. It does not make you as high as a kite- you can still "feel" your pain if you concentrate on it. But you can go about your life.
.

[weightlifter123]

I have eliminated mine through this:
1. DO Not do anything that stretches the muscles in your back, this will make it worse because they are probably overstretched
2. Because they are overstretched your chest is too tight. Start stretching your chest daily (I used light dumbbells and held the bottom portion of a dumbbell fly for about 30 seconds, 3 times a day).
3. Be aware of how you are sleeping.  If you sleep on your back try sleeping on your side and make sure your back is not in a position where it is stretching the rhomboid area.  If you continue sleeping on your back make sure the pillow is under your head and not under your head and shoulders (this causes a rounded back).
4. Work at these because it will probably take at least a week to feel any improvements.  I used to get pain in the rhomboid area about 2 to 4 times a month and it lasted for several days. Since I have implemented these fixes, I have been without pain for almost a year now.

[weightlifter123]

I forgot to add this:
Very important: Look into improving posture. Try the following test. Take two pencils and grip them with your fists and let your arms relax at your sides while standing like you normally would. Now look down at the pencils. Which way do they point? Are they parallel? Parallel means correct posture. If you are having this back pain chances are the pencils will be point inward toward each other.  

To fix this pull your shoulders back until the pencils are parallel to each other.  If you are to eliminate your pain and fix your posture you must maintain this new shoulder position until it becomes normal for you (this will take time, just maintain the posture and the pain should go away soon).