Pinched nerve due to breasfeeding

[Aloe Vera]

I have a pinched nerve from breastfeeding. It is really starting to mess with my quality of life. The pain is so sharp sometimes but what bothers me the most is that I have a loss of strength in my left hand. It's hard to get my baby dressed. I am slower in accomplishing daily tasks...
I went to a chiropractor but since the cause is from a tense muscle, I am going to see a massage therapist in a couple weeks.

Did yours get better eventually? Did it completely disappear? 
I am doing exercises I found online from physical therapists. It helps stop the sharp pain but it isn't addressing the cause. I try to watch my posture when I breastfeed: straight back and neck.
Anything else I should be doing?

[patches31709]

I didn't have a pinched nerve, but had De Quervain's tenosynovitis. Wearing a splint pretty much 24/7 helped me, but it sounds like the nerve is in your back/neck? If so, no advice, just commiseration from me. I hope you're feeling better soon - it's hard to try and do things with one hand.

[Aloe Vera]

Jun 29, 2020 11:48:35 GMT -5 patches31709 said:

I didn't have a pinched nerve, but had De Quervain's tenosynovitis. Wearing a splint pretty much 24/7 helped me, but it sounds like the nerve is in your back/neck? If so, no advice, just commiseration from me. I hope you're feeling better soon - it's hard to try and do things with one hand.

The nerve is going from my neck to my hand. The muscles are so tense that they are compressing my cervical and the nerve.

[patches31709]

Oh that's awful. Is there any kind of bracing that would help? Even if it is just something you could only wear at night?

[waverly]

I don't know what caused it, but my co-workers daughter had that and also weakness and numbness in her arm. She did physical therapy in person and also saw a chiropractor. You might have to go in for PT. Hers did get better.

[Aloe Vera]

Jun 29, 2020 13:38:46 GMT -5 waverly said:

I don't know what caused it, but my co-workers daughter had that and also weakness and numbness in her arm. She did physical therapy in person and also saw a chiropractor. You might have to go in for PT. Hers did get better.

PT is my next step if relaxing the muscle doesn't get better.

[sdlaura]

Sending you hugs - I have a herniated disc from labor - these babies can mess up our bodies! I have a referral to PT but haven’t been yet because it’s slowly improving and I hope it continues to.

[lo]

I’m sorry, that sounds awful. I’ve dealt with nerve pain in other body parts while pregnant and I know how agonizing it can be! I do not have a pinched nerve, but my upper back and neck have been killing me breastfeeding my twins. It’s so tight and stiff and I don’t know what to do about it. I need to go to the chiropractor and get a massage ASAP, but it’s so difficult to do right now.

[Patsy Baloney]

McKenzie Method exercises for your neck, specifically retractions and extensions. I had a horrible pinched nerve (just generally, not from breast feeding). I lost feeling in both hands and had numbness all the way down my arms. I totally lost strength.

The McKenzie Method exercises my PT had me do were like a miracle. You can look them up on YouTube and there’s also a booklet out there to demonstrate proper form. I think it’s called something like Treating Your Own Neck Pain.

Anyway, PT had me do retractions in the morning - sit as straight as you can in a firm chair, look straight ahead, chin parallel to the floor (I liked to use my fingers on my chin to stabilize) then gently retract your neck backwards as far as you can. Relax/release. I did them 10-15 times every 2 hours.

In the afternoon, once you’ve warmed up and been doing the retractions in the morning, add extensions. When you’ve retracted your neck backwards, then gently let your head fall back and extend your neck, chin up toward the ceiling. I did those 10-15 times every 2 hours.

I remember having really sharp pain in my shoulders with a pinched nerve and doing these exercises. It was like having a knife in my back. There may also be some centralizing of pain where, as you heal, the pain starts to march back up your arm to the source at the neck. But, the healing was quick. I went from no feeling in my hands to being released from PT in a matter of a month and a half.

Seriously, look up those exercises. They are life savers. Also, I found a TENS unit helped more with pain than any medication. I was on muscle relaxers, but found tramadol and the TENS unit overnight when I woke because of pain to be more effective at pain management while doing PT.

[dcn]

I would make a pt appointment so they can assess and give you exercises. I wouldn’t wait until after your massage.

[shaynaatl]

I feel your pain. I have a pinched nerve that started late last week after I went to the gym for the first time in 3 months. I have strong aches and tingling in my right arm and hand. I'm not in constant misery, but doing things like brushing my teeth do hurt. I don't typically get pain so this injury is really messing with me mentally too.

My co-worker had this exact same issue and it was eliminated by a chiropractor in 5-6 visits. So if this pain doesn't go away soon, I'm going to visit that chiro early next week.

Per earlier suggestions I also looked up McKenzie Method and found this video. I'm going to start doing this now.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WrqTD33nDM

[picksthemusic]

Have you considered trigger point injections? This is specifically used to get a muscle to stop contracting and give you relief. Once that happens, you can do the exercises/PT that will strengthen your muscles better and without so much pain. It's an injection of lidocaine directly into a spasming muscle.

I had a pinched nerve once that made my left arm go numb and limp. I was in so much pain. Then I had a trigger point injection and it was instant relief. Blood/feeling rushed back into my arm and it was like a miracle. See if your PCP or chiro can recommend someone who can do it for you.

[ellipses84]

Continue the chiro/massage and add PT if you need it. My DH got me a hypervolt percussion massager gun as a gift because I have frequent back pain and it is seriously amazing. It’s $$$ but there are cheaper knock-off versions of it. It’s marketed towards athletes and loosens up my muscles as good as a professional massage.

What type of chair are you sitting in to breastfeed and have you tried different ones? You want to make sure it allows for proper ergonomics. Are you holding your phone or do you sit with a computer mouse a lot (even when not bf’ing)? The pinching starting at the neck makes me think of those causes. You could try to side lie when you BF as much as possible for a couple weeks. That always seemed to help when BFing was hurting my back.

[imojoebunny]

Are you sure it is a pinched nerve? With both my kids, I had weakness in my arms, and extreme pain in my shoulder(s) and down my arms. With the first, I went to physical therapy many times, and it only got worse, since the doctor thought it was something with my shoulders, which have hyper flexibility. It turned out, that I have disc problem in my neck. Like I don't have one between my C4 and C5, and it was very aggravated by having infants and small children. It got much better in both cases, once I stopped breastfeeding, and they started walking. It was horrible, especially, with my second, like I dropped him on his head on concrete because I suddenly lost strength in my hands when I went to pick him up when he was 6 month old. With my second, they figured out I was missing a disc and wanted to fuse my spine, but I randomly met a neurologist in the bathroom line at a port-o-let, who told me to come see him before I had that surgery, which is not compatible with being the primary care person for small kids, but disc replacement has a much better recovery time. In the time I was waiting for the appointment with him, it mostly resolved, since my kid stopped breast feeding and started walking, after 18 months of shit on a stick. I ended up having 3 spinal injections before that 18 months. After my kids could walk, it has mostly been ok without surgeries. There are certain things that if I do, I will regret, sometimes for months, and I have had PT and steroids for, but it is 1000% better. This is my own theory, but I think the hormones you have with delivery and BF make these sorts of issues much worse. I carried my kids pretty much exclusively in carriers, sling and ergo, to prevent dropping them, and had friends who would do things like go to the grocery with me, to get them in and out of the car seat. Sometimes, I would ask complete strangers to do that, if I was in a great deal of pain. It sucked, but spinal fusion, at a youngish age, sucks to. I found pretty much every doctor who deals with this has zero idea of any thing with nursing or post partum, and I saw at least a dozen of them. Poison control had a lady I would call and talk to about the meds they prescribed and there impact on BF.