Hi J,

Don't freak out , catching TOS or chronic RSI stuff as soon as possible is a good thing.

What kind of instrument do you play?

Anything with arms forward & head forward { most instruments}, reps & long hours of practice can really impact the body/posture relationship.

Any previous injuries? whiplash, hyper mobile? these factors add up too.
The crutches use adds to it too.

If you've been reading for awhile I guess I don't need to repeat my usual newbie replies LOL

ask away with whatever questions you have.

You can turn it around if it is myofascial based - but it's isn't a easy fix - takes time and rest & proper rehab and self care & posture awareness.

Do you make your living as a musician?

I did assembly work so had to eventually step away from job when I finally realized I needed time away to get maximum healing.

What is your avg daily pain level now? {0 =none up to 10 = highest}
What are you most bothersome symptoms at this point?


for me -
self care- body work/posture, far infra red heating pad, trigger point self care as needed, Sharon Butler stretches & reverse posture stretches - only once in awhile now - back at the beginning of my injury many x's a day was my focus.

a really good chiropractor- does upper cervical & PT modalities too - ultra sound, IF stim, LLLT, NIMMO { had some misalignments from many many yrs ago}

A couple of advanced PT people were very helpful.

I haven't gone back to work, but I suppose I could if I carefully choose an appropriate job for myself.
But I can pretty much do all activities without too much problem.
It did take a couple of years to get to this point, and at first I didn't know anything about TOS until I found these websites.
Learned much along the way, but the most important thing is to learn about it early on and work to reverse the damage before it becomes a major & permanent problem.

Some pressed thru the pain /symptoms & tried to keep working - not knowing it could become something like TOS and so permanent.

My hope is to get the info out that by learning about TOS early on and working to reverse it before yrs go by {while waiting for a dx from Dr} most can avoid the worst of the problems.