well, since mine is a case of true neurogenic TOS it's difficult to say. as some of you know, it hit me while i was still in college and i had a decades-long "gap" between onset and dx, but when i presented several possibilities to dr. ahn 28 years after onset of sx (difficult pregnancy, carrying toddler around, faux pas in jazz dance class, poring over text books or lugging around same), he suspected my pregnancy more than anything else as the trigger for the severe sx (the "cause" being underlying congenital anatomical anomalies major enough to not only have kept me in high pain for most of my adult life but to have caused gilliat-sumner hand; the hand atrophy had been clearly noticeable since the mid-1980's).

i remember reading in the medical literature after that first or second encounter with the great sam ahn, that pregnancy can be enough of an insult to the body to set off the TOS beast in some women (well, if it set off TOS in any men, i suppose you'd really have something to write about!). so hmmm. seems to me then, sam was playing it safe by saying that to me... the old tried and true, as it were. didn't want to hurt himself breaking new ground or anything... nor move too swift nor talk too wise, in my case anyhow. god forbid these guys should tailor-make their approach to any one of us TOS'ers. does anyone else find that infuriating? fortunately, i had forewarned my lovely daughter, chelsea, that he might say that, as she was with me on that visit.

we're neither catholic nor jewish, but we WASP's can do guilt just as well as anyone else; she was horrified to think that she was the cause of her mommy's great anguish and this young woman has born witness to it, let me tell you guys. chels does not remember a day when her mom was NOT in pain. TOS has stolen so much from her! it makes me so angry. she could have had brothers and sisters, for starters... i love babies; i love children - but if i couldn't even pick her up anymore, how was i going to have more? i never did. OK, sorry, i'm getting off topic here. anyway, of course after getting out of ahn's office i immediately put my TOS arms around her and told her i would go through it all over again, 100 times if necessary, just to have one day with her. i love her so much! and of course it goes without saying that none of this is her fault. i am back to my idea of a charm school for TOS surgeons now...

but i have my own theory on TOS etiology as well, iconoclast that i am.

ready, kidz? OK, here it is: sins of a past life.


yes, i'll go with that.

makes about as much sense to me as anything else.

go ahead and make fun of me, you guys...

alison

P.S. there've been lots of fender-benders (i live in LA), an elevator accident, and a high-stress job between then and now in which i'm sure i reinjured myself on a daily basis between heavy computer use and almost nonstop telephone nonsense. all nails in the coffin, my friends, nails in the coffin of my TOS ****. but for purposes of answering the question i tried to limit myself to the very onset of my TOS, which was waaaaay back in the '70's before most of you were even born probably! shut up! leave this old woman alone. and why can't you access emoticons on an edit, what's up with that i wonder? these are the questions i ponder, folks...