Hi,

I'm a 43 yr old male and for the last 10 years, i've had gradually weakening wrists and grip, and in the last year, i've noticed muscle wasting of my hands and forearms. The wasting is uniform across all fingers and back and front of hands, really weak grip, struggle to wash up, handwriting is suffering and I dread handshakes as my hand just crumples and is painful.

I wake most nights with numb hands or fingers and my hands are sensitive to cold, i've had to give up outdoor swimming as they just go numb now.

I'm otherwise very healthy, regularly train and compete in triathlon, am still competitive in my age group locally.

I was born with congenital hypotonia, sat up and walked much later than most babies, but made up for it and became quite athletic and sporty all my life.

I was x-rayed after a car accident 20 years ago, remember I was told I have an extra vertebrae in my neck (no mention of extra ribs), it was just a passing comment by the radiographer.

10 yrs ago I started to notice hand weakness, so I went to GP who sent me for tests suspecting MND, EMGs etc all came back normal so I carried on.

Saw a neurosurgeon last year who agreed my hands were weak but said it is gradual and not much can be done, put it down to my birth hypotonia.

Its getting more painful to use hands now, lifting pans, gardening etc are really tough, but rest of me is fine, even broke a few personal bests running and cycling this year, but swimming is suffering.

After reading about TOS on here and British Medical Journal entries, Im going back to GP to discuss where to go next, I'm scared i'll have really useless hands in a year or two if nothing is done.

I've started some TOS exercises from a study where 88% of participants showed improvement, but as my symptoms are so gradual, I'm not sure any improvement will be noticeable.

Any help or advice is much appreciated, thank you for reading this...

Matt