Major rhomboid injuries can cause severe back pain and are nothing to joke around with. The rhomboid is a muscle on that connects your shoulder blade to your spine. Located in that sweet spot, near the upper middle of your back where you can’t really reach to rub the pain away, an injury could lay you up for a very long time.
There are many causes of pain, injury or loss of movement to this muscle. Some could happen simply by bending or making a swinging motion, however more commonly this muscle is injured while at work because of repetitive shoulder action. This is not an easy muscle to heal because of its location, typically the best way to get better from a major injury to this muscle is to rest and try to reduce the swelling. Once the pain starts to fade, a person could try to regain range of motion and flexibility by going to physical therapy. Stretching and muscle building movements will help the body repair it’s self from such an injury.
If you are experiencing upper back pain from a work related injury, you may have an injured rhomboid muscle. In most cases, doctors’ appointments, medication, physical therapy and rehabilitation should be all covered by filing a workers compensation claim. It’s important that you have a doctor who knows how to treat these injuries as they are often misdiagnosed as just shoulder pain. And of course as it’s a unique injury in some ways it’s important to have an attorney who knows how to handle these cases because they are very often fought by the insurance company.
We see a lot of these injuries with clients who bend frequently on the job or do actions which cause them to twist or shift their bodies in awkward or violent ways. If your doctor has you off work it is important that those restrictions be followed by your employer and the insurance company because one big way rhomboid injuries go from a short term to long term problem is by having to continually lift heavy objects after the injury has taken place. These injuries can heal in 2-3 weeks or last many months depending on the treatment you get and if restrictions are followed.
If you have a rhomboid injury or any other Illinois workers’ compensation issue that you’d like to discuss, please fill out our contact form or call us at (312) 346-5578. We cover all of Illinois and it’s always free to call.
