Hi Fern,
Let me first start with a disclaimer that I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV
... however, I do have a couple of thoughts on your issue(s). First, I believe that if you have suspected or undisputed TOS that you should really work on correcting or minimizing that as a top priority. I'm not suggesting surgery as I do not have the expertise to even do so. There appear to be a number of alternative therapeutic strategies that one might want to consider first anyway, including PT, before going under the knife. For me, personally, surgery will only come as a last resort. Tendonitis is a common ailment often attributed to overuse and/or incorrect use. If you have TOS, I would suspect that you are doing both. You are overusing your "good" side and producing symptoms because of that and you are incorrectly using your "bad" side in an attempt to reduce your symptoms there. If you do have tendonitis, which wouldn't surprise me, you might want to address the underlying cause and not just the symptoms... i.e., you wouldn't just take an asprin for a headache caused by a tumor, right?. Most often tendonitis is treated with rest (i.e., stop doing what was aggravating the problem), icing the area and taking OTC NSIADs, which you could do yourself, however, any orthopedic doc should be able to dx this problem. With regard to the ligament laxity, whether this is congenital or brought on by a specific trauma, there are treatment plans for this as well and again, it sounds like an orthopedic doc should be able to dx/tx this - I would look for one that specializes in Sports Medicine. I would end though with reiterating what I suggested in the beginning of this response, which is to take care of your TOS - again, this does not necessarily mean surgery. It could be promoting your tendonitis and considering how the pain of TOS can really just be all over the map, I think it is very difficult to tweeze out other issues, especially if they are complications of the TOS. Most importantly, you don't want to "confuse" the issue and get treated for a lot of other things when the real problem isn't being addressed. All that will do is cause you a lot of aggravation with little to no real relief! Again, just a few thoughts. I wish you the best!
Waggy
Quote:
Originally Posted by fern
I have nondisputible TOS and even have the studies to prove it. It's probably double crush--or so I've been told in the past. But I have lots of arm symptoms and especially on the not so bad TOS side, which for me is the right side and I am right handed. This makes me believe that some of my symptoms are things like tendonitis.
What I'd like to find is the correct diax for my arm and hand problems in addition to the TOS. I was diax years ago with bi-lateral tennis elbow but that was years before any TOS diax. I just went to a local physiatrist and he wouldn't even look at my arms, telling me that it doesn't matter what else I have and that he would look at me after I have TOS surgery on both sides. But the surgeons I've seen will only do one side, at least for now, and I may choose to never have the rib resection. I at least want to try to find what conditions I do have so that I can try to treat it or choose to finally go ahead with a rib resection.
So what kind of doctor usually diagnoses conditions like tendonitus... and is it possible to find one that can differentiate between TOS and the others? I haven't found a good doctor for TOS anywhere in town yet or I'd ask them for a referral. I am not looking to jump into any other surgeries but I'd like to get appropriate PT or some kind of pain relief or muscle re-education or something. I think that since I have ligament laxity that I am subject to lots of stuff being that I haven't been able to exercise my upper body in a long time. And I'm not sure what kind of doctor to see for the ligament laxity/ hypermobility issue either.
Any suggestions appreciated.
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