Hello everyone,
Ive spoken about varying scapular stability and also varying symptoms down my arm due to the varying pec minor tightness. I would now like to speak about other symptoms such as cold hand, cyanosis and changed breathing patterns.
The first time cyanosis was noticed in my affected hand was when my wife and I were at a meeting with a new rehabilitation consultant. The previous rehab con. had been dismissed by the case manager due to her improper conduct. A meeting had been convened to meet the new rehab consultant and also so I could express my disappointment with the Occupational Physician and his rehab strategies.
The Occ Phys had told me that despite the fact that the MRI indicating that the disc bulge was on my left side and it was my right arm was the affected side he still felt that my problem was nerve root irritation. His treatment consisted of a truncal stability program and neural stretches. The weight lifting in the gym caused muscles to become tighter and hand tingling to get worse. My complaints that my condition was worsening were met with “no pain , no gain”. The PT had written notes which I had delivered to the OCC PHYS which stated that I had scapular instability. The Occ Phys said my shoulder was fine. He instructed the pt to show me 3 neural stretches. These caused a massive flare up of all the symptoms.
At the meeting with the new rehab con. Where I was to tell her that I was getting worse, my wife (who is a nurse) said “look at your hand”. My right hand was blue /red, significantly different in colour to my left hand. The treatment that I had been receiving (for nerve root irritation) had worsened my condition. Not only did my hand become blue/red but at other times it would it would become significantly colder than my other hand. I often showed other people how much different the temperature of my hands might become. Before I was able to remove myself from the control of this Occ Phys he sent me back to my workplace . At the workplace I was required to use a machine which necessitated the use of my right arm above my head. Something happened in my upper back when I did this. I reported this occurring and I was given different duties. The strange thing was that when I sat down 10 mins later my hand turned cold. I have noticed that the over whelming majority of cold and cyanosis symptoms happen when I sit down. It would seem greater pressure on my diaphragm combined with chest breathing exacerbates these symptoms.
I have noticed that breathing patterns vary also. There is much information regarding TOS, T4 syndrome and chest breathing. I have noticed that when i lay down to sleep at night time that breathing becomes harder. I have mentioned previously that I use a brace to hold my shoulders down and back because this stops much of the muscle spasms which occur in my upper back. On a few occasions when I have removed the brace in the evening, it has been obvious that the chest breathing has started. I have also mentioned previously that investigations into high blood pressure had uncovered the fact that I have a hyper inflated chest cavity. An xray prior to my TOS problem did not indicate this problem. I have only had a breathing problem since getting TOS . Pulmicort has made my breathing easier. Sleeping is much easier when you are not chest breathing. It seems strange to me that even if TOS sufferers don’t have an extra rib they may have a section of rib removed (please correct me if I am wrong about this).
I believe that chest breathing is a significant contributing factor to TOS.
three PTs tried unsuccessfuly to retrain me to stop chest breathing, the medication has improved my significantly. the PTs tried the only way they knew how, if high blood pressure hadnt uncovered the chest problem, the chest problem would not have been addressed. got to go. see you later, towelhorse.