Hey Johanna,

Sorry to hear about your husband. It does suck and I understand. My situation is not the same as yours but it's so hard to get everything done and go to all the doc appts. Eventually I pared down the docs because I was getting no where.

But I can completely relate about your husband because although I do not have kids, my husband would lose pateince too. And it would hurt me and I would not believe that it was happening but I had to learn to understand that he listens and takes care of me but has no one to vent to when he needs it. He was more losing patience with the situation than with me personally. And he needed some attention too. So I tried to learn to just listen when he needed me to listen. Not to offer any advice because he just needed a release. It helped me. But I also had to tell my husband that while I am here for him and will listen because we are partners in this that he needs to understand that I need him to listen as well and not give me advice just be there for me. I had to tell him to stop acting like a baby because it was only bringing me down.

I was not a fan of Dr. Sheldon. It was like he had attention deficit disorder and kept wanting to get onto the next thing and I still had questions. Plus he was expensive and out of network. I never tried botox. Dr. Saxton will tell you that Botox only works on 50% of the people that try it. She is great and caring and gave me the PT prescription for Joyce. I just kept going back to Dr. Saxton and she kept writing the PT prescrips and BCBS kept paying so I kept going.

Be aware though that Dr. Saxton is not a fan of Dr. Filler so I do not mention him when I see her. Dr. Filler's imaging technique may be able to help pinpoint the type of entrapment.

Joyce will help pinpoint more of the source of the area that needs work. She does alot of body work where she is manipulating things. And then she will give you exercises to work on. She also did alot of ultrasound for me. It really helped loosen the spasms. Joyce understand that she needs to get you moving before any kind of strengthening. We did not strengthing until after 9 months of PT. Now I work out with the trainer and we carefully lift weights and do cardio. The other thing that helped me turn a corner was the lyrica. It calmed down the nerves that were irritating the muscles that irriatated the nerves etc. I do not want to stay on long term but it helps.


You husband is right about not using the muscles and they get weaker and make it worse. It's a terrible circle. Joyce will help you get those muscles working again. THey do need to get strong though to support each other. AS I have read in others threads, posture is so important. COnstantly remember your posture. And muscle relaxers helped me, the plain old flexeril still works the best.

Do you know what you did to get TOS? How did it come about? Looking back I can now see what I did (heavy luggage) and too much computer work.

The other thing that has helped has been the hyperbaric treatments. There is a place here in Santa Monica that I went to. It helps the muscles get the O2 it is lacking from the spasms and helps relax them. Not a permananent fix but it all goes together.

Hang in there. I am hoping Joyce can help.

Keep me posted
Shelley