Hello All,
Can anyone offer up their experience with their neck muscles after radiation. Do they ever get back to normal? I realize that the side I had the neck disection on will never return to normal, but what about the other side? I had radiation there but no surgery. My neck just seems so "tired" all the time. Yes, I am much more active now then even a month ago so I imagine some of that comes into play. My neck and across the back of my shoulders will feel sore and achy. My right shoulder and neck muscle, I think, are sore from the way I sit when I'm at the computer. If I turn my neck a certain way I can feel the soreness right down the muscle in my shoulder to my back. If anyone understands all of this, please let me know if it's part of the process.
Thanks, Minnie

I had major problems with by back and neck after my first neck dissection because no one told me anything other than don't lift anything over 1 lb.

First, do you have arms on your office/computer chair. If not get one with arms. Without that, I wound up sitting in crazy positions trying to support my arm and pulled my back and neck completely out of whack.

Second, get to a physical therapist to strengthen your arm, get your shoulder blade back in position and also to help get rid of that lymph fluid under the chin. Trust me it all feels wonderful.

Third, if your back and shoulder are bothering you, I would support the arm as much as possible so it doesn't drag on the shoulder. I used a stuffed bear under mine when riding in the car, watching TV, etc. Anyplace where I didn't have a chair arm to support it. If the arm feels heavy when you walk, support it under the elbow with the other hand.

PT should be able to put you back together. They did me. When I had the second neck dissection 4 years later, I followed the above procedures and went to PT immediately and had no problems.

Hope that helps,

Eileen

Eileen I have much of the same problems as mentioned, you mentioned above "get your shoulder blade back into position" I have a winged scapula I've been seeing a Physiotherapist for about 4 months now with little or no improvement in my shoulder, just how do we get our shoulder back into position this is my main concern after surgery...mine was aug 18 2003 and I had a selective neck disection. My trap muscle is atriphying on me and is tiny now and this is worring me..I want it back to normal
Thanks
Ray

I believe what I had was also a 'winged Scapula'. My shoulder blade was way out to the right and I could not reach over my head. Amongst other things, my PT used several moves called Trager Technique. They were called Shoulder Rotational Oscilation, Shoulder Girdle Oscillation and (I can't read my writing) something humeral Rotation. These are moves where he rotates the arms, shoulder blade, etc while you are on lying on your stomach. If you will email me your name & address at jumei01.ca.com, I will zerox and mail them to you. I also had stretches and worked with pulleys and weights to strengthen the arm.

Too bad you are not in NJ, I have a great PT to recommend in Lawrenceville, NJ. He is also a specialist in intra and extra oral problems, like trismus. If anyone wants more info, email me at jumei01.ca.com, not the email address on this site.

Eileen

On other thing I just remembered. He also gave me exercises to do with a blue theraband. While I did do some of them. I found that just sitting on the sofa and pulling it up and over and behind my head worked very well for stating to get the arm back over my head. I also did things like hang from the doorway when I walked through it, wlaked the arm up the wall, etc. The theraband was the easiest. You can do this while you watch TV.


Eileen