Quote:
Originally Posted by northerngirl
Thank you for the information and support. I live in Canada and have medical. The doctors will do stuff for you if you ask and give a sound reason for the request. ( They don't like being sued for not doing stuff) I live in a small community and it's 3-6 months to see a neuro and 1 1/2 hour drive. I live next to the local doctors office. He is a good GP but ...
I had b12 test, my chiro said it would not hurt to follow up with a rheumatologist for fibro. I has a blood test that did not show up (? antibodies?) to support that. He looked at my neck x-rays and said my x-rays look good. No one has done the pulse test with arms up or out.
What makes them tingle so bad a night? Is it lack of blood circulation to the nerves or is it just the nerves? I am going to make an appointment this week to see the GP. I have been putting it off because I feel if you don't know what wrong with you or what you want them to do they pat you on the shoulder and say come back in 6 months. Actually the nuero said if I am still concerned come back in 2 years.
The GP said he could send for a MRI or ct scan if I want to pay for it because only a neuro can order one. But will it show TOS?
Thank you in advance for your opinion, and support.
Cheers Laurie
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Hey Laurie,
Welcome I am Victoria from Alberta previously Ontario for most of my life.
I can't understand why you would have to pay for an MRI or CT ever ever ever unless you go to a private clinic in BC. I would check that one out for sure...call your local health network or however your province works with healthcare...not sure sorrry.....I am an RN and loved my job until a lift made me have TOS and a huge messy battle with Workers Comp which I just won!
Having said tht I do want to send my condolences on the loss of your mother it must be very difficult especially with so much going on in your life as well. hugs.....
I think you may want to try to find a physiatrist...if you want to find doctors and then tell your gp who you want to go and see it makes his/her life easier and if you take medical articles and infromation on TOS and how to treat it and what can help with the pain in the mean time...unless you are still breastfeeding then you need to watch everything that goes into you as you must welll know by now.
https://www.cpsbc.ca/node/264
that is a link to the college of surgeons of BC you can go there and look for doctor by specialty and then pick the closest one to you and look them up on the net find out if they have any articles....what they have done..
If you are looking for a BC specialist in TOS I believe DR. FRY is in the contact list.....but by the sounds of it you are north BC and not close to the surgical centers where DR Fry is....I believe Vancouver but could be wrong. He does tos surgery and is aware of TOS.....your doc could call him to get advice???
Another test to consider is a doppler ultrasound of the arms where they put you into provocative positions.....arms at ear level and hands above elbows...so 90deg angle ie: put your hands up move but not all the way just to elbows up and shoulder to elblow at ear level. (am I making any sense here???) Sometimes I ramble a bit.....sorry
That test will check your blood flow into your arms in the prov. positions and that could tell if you have any blood flow issues that may cause swelling and then push on nerves to cause numbness and tingling...Vascular tos.....there are a few kinds of TOS but I won't bore you I'm sure you've looked online to find info.
Any doc who tells you that you are fine cause your emg is negative has NO CLUE about tos....my emg's were all fine but I had a 90% occlusion of blood vessels when my arms were above my head....I have vascular and neurogenic tos.....they did surgery for the vasc and now I deal with the chronic pain of the tos.... a good PT who does passive movement with you may help as well as accupuncture or deep accupuncture ims to help you get through the pain until you can see the right doctors. Can you appeal to the bc health board saying it will take you 1.5 years to get to the neurologist and that is an unacceptable wait time and you want to be seen in a more rapid time and it is up to them to provide the service for you. You need to be seen soon to determine if there is damage to your nerves and then what your options are with the pain and management of your TOS....which to me you have all the classic signs of.
All it took for me to get injured was one lift of a patient the wrong way. This could have happened while lifting your Mom or your kids.....it is not an easy thing to determine.
please feel free to email me or to PM me if you want more help.
I'd be happy to go over things with you. you need to be seen by a neuro asap. or at the very least a vascular guy who will rule out vascular tos for you then go on to management of neuro tos.
take care and try not to worry TOO much....it really does not help.
oh by the way the amitriptyline you were given for stress is a good medication to help with nerve pain and nerve irritation. There are lots of meds to help but you NEED a diagnosis for sure not that tos is ever for sure it is a diagnosis of exclusion and you can get fibroymalaia from tos as it is an attact of your nervous system and the body can overeact to cause fibromyalgia (it did for me anyhow....6 years in pain.....= fibromyalgia)
headaches can be managed by botox injections into trigger points and your head but you want somebody at a major hospital to give it to you for the sake of poor injection........
okay enough for now...
please take care and hope you get the answers you need
love and hugs,
Victoria
gibbrn@hotmail.com