The atrophy has been a mixed bag. Within days of getting the shot I had atrophy of the trapezius and other muscles -my mind's gone blank again -
rhomboids and levator ......... something, anyway, my shoulder dropped close to 2 inches. Shortly afterwards is when I first started feeling numbness and tingling in the hand and the fingers started growing cold. I also had a lot of twinges in the scap area and shooting pains in the triceps.

The biceps, triceps, trap and other upper back muscles atrophied due to nerve damage from the brachial neuritis. I've been told that damage is probably permanent. No PT or home exercise has ever helped. The hand atrophy is mostly due to TOS, I've had many EMG's showing nerve compression. When I had the rib resction done, an extra scalene was found, wrapping around other muscles, running through the wrong places and very close and tight under C-8, so that every time I moved my arm that scalene made a sawing motion against the nerve. The surgery helped relieve compression on the lower and middle trunk of the BP.

I still had sx in my hand and the atrophy continued there, and six months later another EMG showed a lesion of the medial ( I think) cord - sorry, I don't remember these things well without checking my papers, and I need to leave in a minute, so I'm "winging it" Anyway, this time the compression was at the pec minor, and I had surgery to relieve that. Again, it helped, but the incision got infected once I returned home, no local Dr would touch me for weeks til I finally begged enough after it had abcessed twice and 2 rounds of antibiotics hadn't done a thing, and 10 weeks after surgery it was still nasty looking. I'm sure I have quite a bit of scar matter between that and the rib resection, and there may be other areas of compression still, who knows?

The neuritis also damaged the nerve that runs under the arm and down the side of the ribs, and branches from the underarm over into the breast. That nerve was damaged or irritated more during the rib resction and causes crazy pain at my elbow. The elbow pain and my hand going icy cold several times a day have been my biggest crosses to bear, they are so hard to ignore. Luckily, the SCS is helping some with the circulation in my hand so I don't experience as much of a temperature change, or as often.

I carried my right arm for the first four months, as the whole thing hurt so much, and at least the drag on the shoulder was less that way. I did do several weeks of PT and saw a chiropractor and a massage therapist, but outside of therapy I carried that arm constantly, like the lion with a thorn in his paw :icon_wink: When I finally got my PCP to send me to a pain Dr, the first thing they had me do was start using the arm again. I probably lost some muscle due to that. Otherwise I've used it daily as much as I use my left, but no heavy lifting, vaccuuming, laundry, it's extremely painful to apply any force with my right hand due to the RSD, so that limits me a lot.

I did have really good upper arm strength prior to the injury, always had since I was a kid. I detassled corn during summers as a teen, waited tables before and during college, taught preschoolers before having my own kids. My first car was a Mustang, it was a stick shift without power steering or windows. That alone built strong shoulders!!

I have TOS on the left as well and the muscles are wasting exactly like the right hand, around the thumb and first finger area, and at the little finger.
So I drop things with both hands

SIgns of RSD - pain to touching things, or being touched, that was real early, temperature changes, like the icy cld that seems to start from the inside of your hand and spread out, an ache deep in the bone, almost like acid eating away at it, and heat bursts, almost like sunburn, appearing anywhere on your body, lasting from seconds to half an hour or more.

However -- some of these things TOSers will feel because their sympathetic nervous system is overstimulated, or overwhelmed. That doesn't mean you WILL have RSD. But when you get these sx it may be a sign you're overdoing things and your system needs a rest. If you ignore them and keep pushing on without listening to your body they may become worse and more frequent and at some point become truly RSD. RSD is awful- there is no cure, not much even helps.

Please take care of yourself, ok? It's a hard time to not overdo, I know. Make some lists, cross out everything that isn't essential, delegate everything you can, save your energy for the things that are truly important. You just can't do it all, and if you try, you won't enjoy any of it.

I'm learning simple really is better in lots of ways, for the whole family. Well, I need to go, talking way too much here!! The other thing I try to do is not type too much - sure blew that one today, didn't I?

Nice to meet you!

beth