I mentioned previously that my diagnoses have been
• Cervical and thoracic spondylitis, which was changed to
• Thoracic spondylitis (the wry neck symptoms subsided but there was an excruciating pain on the rhs of my upper thoracic spine)
• Thoracic outlet syndrome
• C 5/6 Nerve root irritation ( later a neuro-surgeon told me that the orthopaedic surgeon had read the MRI backwards, the disc bulge was on the wrong side )
• Displaced scapula
• Brachial plexus syndrome
• Discogenic pain of the thoracic spine
• Myofascial pain of the erector spinae muscles
• Chronic pain syndrome
• T4 syndrome
• Partial palsy of the long thoracic nerve

And that 1 neurosurgeon offered a myelogram that would lead to surgery on my spine, if they found something untoward and another neurosurgeon offered an operation where he would resect part of my scalene muscle but I was told that there was only a 30% success rate. And another doctor sought permission from the workcover authority to inject botox into muscles in my back.
It occurred to me that where I was consistent with the reporting of my symptoms and the actions which exacerbated the symptoms, the medical system was not consistent in its assessment of my condition and the interpretation of my symptoms. This led to much frustration. As you may have gathered I try to be specific, but the doctor’s reports ranged from “loquacious” to ”he describes some days as good days and some as bad days and can’t give any reason for the fluctuation”. I can assure you that I did give reasons for the fluctuations, and those reasons were “ when I use my affected arm I get tight muscles in my upper back and strange sensations in my arm, and when I put it in a sling it improves markedly.
For crying out loud the provocative tests for TOS are using the arm in ways that require extra scapular stability. Is this the biggest joke in medical history. Could TOS be caused by someone losing scapular stability and the symptoms are as a consequence of the other scapular stabilizers compromising the nerves that go down ones arm and the poor posture that they notice (after the event) is also due to poor scapula stability, and when they send someone on a shoulder girdle strengthening program they are only causing the other scapular stabilizers to cause more problems.


What if,
You went to the doctor limping and told him that you had sprained your ankle.
The doctor told you that your limping had caused the ankle sprain!!
You tell the doctor that as far as you can remember you weren’t limping prior to having the sprained ankle.
He told you that it was important to walk properly and that you should place your foot flat on the ground as you walk. You tell him that this hurts and you are not able to walk normally.
You tell him that you have a very sore ankle and that your job as a delivery person makes it worse. He sends you to a pt who has seen this condition before, she (sorry about the stereotyping) recommends a truncal strengthening program, corrective breathing exercises and 3 mile per day walk to improve your condition. She tells you to look on the internet to try and make some sense of it all. You see another doctor who tells you that the pain that you are feeling is all in your mind, its called chronic pain syndrome.

Meanwhile your ankle is getting worse, not better. You try and find another doctor and tell them that you have a sore ankle and now it seems also chronic pain syndrome. The new doctor tells you that they have heard that the condition can be caused by depression. You tell them that as far as you can remember you weren’t suffering from depression prior to hurting your ankle and ask them if there is anything that they can do for your ankle.
They tell you that there is an operation that can be performed on your knee that might stop the pain.
You insist that it is your ankle that is sore but now you don’t know what to do. The pain is really bad