Question
About 2-3 times in the past 2 weeks I have woken up with a dull ache in the middle of my upper right arm. It lasts about 2-4 hours, and while moving it constantly seems to alleviate the pain when I wake up, if I stop moving it again to go back to sleep it immediatly starts hurting again. The pain seems to go away sometime after I have been awake and doing things.

I have not suffered from any inguries lately.

Answer
Anna-Marie,

I first want to let you know that I'm not a doctor. Therefore I cannot diagnose anything. I have been a licensed massage therapist for 8 years specializing in pain relief.

After hearing your description of your symptoms, I have some questions for you. What do you do for a living or are you a student? Sometimes a repetitive motion (at work or home) may cause similar symptoms to what you are experiencing. It isn't an "injury" per say, but puts a stress on muscles.

Do you have any shooting pain? Burning pain?

Have you checked with a doctor to see what he/she says?

Also, I'm not sure what you are looking for. You describe your pain but not what you are looking for. Are you looking for recommendations of how to alleviate your pain besides moving it? If so, yes I'm a massage therapist and massage therapy is the first thing that comes to mind. It likely could help reduce the pain if it is muscular. Another thing you may try first is icing the arm (15 mins at a time) before you go to sleep. Alternating ice and heat 15 mins at a time may also be helpful. Stretching that area of your arm may be helpful as well. If you find relief with stretching definitely continue. If there is no change or if you have shooting pain when you awake, I would recommend seeing a doctor. They could recommend a lot of things from massage to physical therapy to medications to checking to see if it is nerve damage.

Since moving your arm helps alleviate the pain, I am temped to think that stretching or massage may help.

Does this make sense? Is this what you were looking for?

If not, please let me know how I can be of assistance.

I hope your pain diminishes or is eliminated soon.

Sincerely,

Jessica