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Hello all,

My name is e and I'm 43 year old female. Let me give you the background of

my possible problem.

I am a hairstylist, and have been in this biz for about 24 years now. Recently

I took over and bought out the old owner of the salon I worked in. It was just

the old owner and I, until she wanted to pursue a different career so she sold

to me and left me her entire clientele that she built up for the last 10 years.

When I first took over I didn't think it would be that hard, but I went from

working 12 hours a week to about 48 hours a week all by myself. So 6 day work

week, 8 hours a day. After the 6th month, I gave up only have one day

off....made up my mind that I should have 2 days off and posted it on the window

as NEW HOURS. I was still working alone in the salon. Not only was I killing

myself to do about 11 haircuts and or color a day, I was dealing with

crabbiness, pickiness, complaints about my hours, having to listen to " how

Sheila used to do their hair " etc. and on top of that going home to husband and

2 kids who were not used to me being gone all day long. Needless to say, I was

sinking all that stress into my upper neck/back/shoulder area.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, the place between my upper back started to

bother me. I sought out a chiropractor that was in the same shopping center as

my salon and quickly made friends with him. I told him that my upper back was

killing me by the end of each day and he was able to do some sort of manuever

with me crossing my arms over my chest as I lay flat on my back and by the next

day I would feel much better. We ended up bartering with each other...I would

cut his hair and his wife/childrens and he would give me free adjustments. That

worked out great. I was still feeling the stress and strain of running this

business alone, but being able to go get my " back cracked " made me feel like I

could handle it. I still think (looking back) that alot of it was building up in

my shoulders and they were just turning into rock hard areas. I also started

getting weekly massages and they would comment on how hard my shoulders felt.

In the summer, my chiro came to get his haircut and mentioned that he " might " be

moving to Australia, and sure enough within a couple of weeks he up and moved

just like that. I was still feeling really stressed out and tight and at this

point had no one to really understand my pain. I started to feel that upper back

pain come on (between shoulder blades) and I would go home at night and my neck

would just ache with tension. I would try to have someone in the house massage

it, but it just didn't really stop. I began to hate my job and would cry to my

husband that I made a mistake taking over the shop and it's too much work and I

couldn't handle it. He didn't give me much sympathy and I am locked into a 3

year lease. So back to the grind I went....every day it would be more stress,

and more building up in my shoulders.

In Sept of this year, something odd happened. I just turned my head and SNAP,

and twinging pain in my neck. My hand instantly went up to my neck to hold onto

it. I thought " wow, that was weird " and it didn't happen again that day. About a

week later, SNAP!! again it happened. I still didn't understand where this was

coming from. Nor did I go see the dr. or chiro. One day after that week, I was

sitting in my computer chair typing and eating something and as I swallowed the

food, I felt this odd little pain in my LEFT shoulder blade area. I thought

" hmm, must have slept wrong last night " again swallowed more food and that area

would again hurt as the food passed by that area of my shoulder blade. I

ignored it and figured it would go away. After a month of my neck spontaneously

doing that SNAP, (I think it only happened maybe 6 more times in the last 3

months) this shoulder blade pain did not go away. I also noticed that my upper

shoulder/neck area was burning as if I had strained it too long. One morning I

woke up and had to go to the dentist and it just ached. I ended up going to

Urgent Care on the way home from the dentist.

I told the PA about my job and that I use my left arm ALOT and all she said was

" we need to do a chest x-ray and EKG " and then I got scared. Sat there for a

moment almost crying and she came back in, results are normal. She then told me

that maybe I should go have my stomach checked. Hmm, okay so my upper shoulder

blade and neck hurt and you want me to go see a GI dr?? Well she said because of

the swallowing issue. So I went, told him everything...he didn't seem too

worried but by then I was a nervous wreck. He suggest a Barium Swallow test and

so I went and had that done...that came out normal too. I also had bloodwork

done, still all normal. Now...I am going into the 4th month with this. I began

see a Myopractor. She deals with Myofascial pain. I only saw her maybe 4 times

and she thought that I should have seen/felt some relief by now.

I went in to see her today and basically she told me that she couldn't help me

because with the 5 days of rest that I had over Thanksgiving break, I still

had/have the neck pain, the upper shoulder blade pain, the lower shoulder blade

pain. The WHOLE left side of my scapula/neck and upper neck are killing me. IT's

a dull pain, but an annoying much like a headache type pain.

I don't know what to do now. I do know I am scared to death of what this could

be. So this is where you guys come in. Any thoughts? Ideas?? I have tried some

things, but most of what I have tried is not working. I thought it could

possibly be a herniated disk in my neck, but my Myopractor said that my shoulder

blade would not have pain, that it would be in my arm and down into my fingers.

For the most part I don't have any numbness or tingling in my fingers.

Occasionally my pinky will kind of act like it wants to numb up, but once I move

it it's fine.

Plus the swallowing thing really bothers me. It honestly feels like it could be

a nerve, but I don't know.

I am basing this on the pain I felt 8 years ago when I had a herniated disk in

my low back and the pain was kind of the same. Dull and achy. As I sit here

typing, and bend my neck to the right touching my chin to my shoulder , I can

feel it almost go from my neck, clear into my shoulder blade as if it's one long

connected burning-on-fire piece.

I am going to the dr. tomorrow, but scared that it would be something bad. A

herniation I can live with and will work to improve. I just always read the

worst into things, and I remember being the same way when I had my low back

pain. I was scared to get that MRI report and found out it was a disk herniation

and that the disk had a tear in it. I ended up having epidural shots and was

healed in only 2 shots. I don't know why I am scared to find out what is really

wrong. I guess because it came on so sudden, but reading my story...maybe it was

a build up to something.

So anyway..there is my intro. Thanks for any insight.

e