Expert: Dr. Paul Newhart - 5/28/2008

Question
I am 42 years old and I am physically active.  I have been doing vertical dance
aka pole dancing for the past 3 years now. Recently I started noticing pain in
my right pointer finger, It's been really hard to open a twist off cap bottle of
water.  Just about 2 weeks ago, I started having sharp pain behind my right
shoulder blade. Are these related?  If not or if so, what could be causing this?  
FYI, I used to have pain in my lower back, (right above my tail bone), but that
seems to have disappeared.

Answer
The pain can most assuredly be related.  The muscles used for your activity the most are the Trapezius and Lattisimus muscles.  The trapezius runs from between the shoulder blades, up to the base of the skull.  If you have caused some over use, it may have caused misalignment and caused pressure, causing the feeling into the finger and the weakness in the hand.  You may want to check with a good chiropractor to be assessed and treated.  They should be able to also help you with a good rehab program to strengthen the areas in question to reduce your likelihood of recurrence of symptoms.