As I have extremely tight and irritated muscles on my left side, does anyone have experience or knowledge with phrenic nerve being caught up in ES? Thinking of potential nerve compression from my bone like scalenes. TIA
It’s not a nerve I’ve ever seen in research papers etc as being involved with the styloids- as the phrenic nerve originates from the C3-C5 spinal nerves in the neck, & the styloid processes rarely grow beyond C2, I doubt that the SPs could compress or irritate it- but as ES pain can cause posture changes & tight muscles in the neck & shoulders, it could maybe be those tight muscles which are squeezing the phrenic nerve? So ES is not exactly a direct cause, but could be an indirect one…
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Thank you so much… I need to follow it’s path to see which muscles could be clamping down on it. I do have a bad cervical spine, which coincidently is only symptomatic on the left, where my styloid dagger is… So is a bit hard to parse out what comes from what. Hoping this journey peels a significant layer of my pain and dysfunction off )).
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I have what looks like ES on left side, and its like my left back muscles are locked all the time all the way up neck. Can’t rotate head to the right all the way. Also sometimes have difficulty lifting L arm up over head and also causes imbalance and dizziness when its really tight.
There is an accessory nerve XI that runs through stylohyoid region and exits out back of neck down spinalis muscles and out into trapezius. Not sure if this is source, but may be.
No amount of stretching seems to stop it currently. Very frustrating, but only on left side where elongation is on the X-ray.
Yes, the accessory nerve is commonly affected by the styloids causing arm & shoulder pain or weakness. @vdm has posted lots of resources about neck & back anatomy & techniques for releasing tight muscles, here’s a link you might find helpful if you’ve not seen it:
List of my favourite resources on YouTube to learn anatomy - General - Living with Eagle
@Dave, If your accessory nerve is being irritated by your styloid, it may be that exercises to relax muscles won’t be super helpful until you get your styloid removed as it will continue to irritate the nerve which will continue to bother the muscles in question. That said, you may be able to get the muscles to relax a bit using the exercises @vdm has posted & to which @Jules referred you, but it may be a continuous exercise process until your styloid is removed.
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