Hi everyone, it has been a tougher week , somethings haven’t gone how I wanted them to go and at those times I look for something that will lift my spirits, I find comfort in passing on some of my experiences which may assist someone somewhere.
On Thursday at my workplace we were conducting an “intensive” (analysis) with a view to implementing lean manufacturing principles into our business. This involved video taping co-workers as they carried out the existing processes. One process required that I hold the small camera for 35 mins continuously at head level, zooming in and out. This can only be done with my right hand (affected side).
This has meant a marked decrease in my scapular stability and therefore some other undesirable symptoms. Because of my general improvement, the pain associated with the loss of scapular stability is quite obvious compared with when I was worse and had the many layers of pain in that upper thoracic area and therefore one more pain was less significant. Now I always wear my shoulder brace when not sleeping, but when something untoward like this happens, the brace isn’t enough. As soon as my wife taped my shoulder back, the pressure on the nerve (LTN) under my shoulder blade was lessened and later the hand symptoms subsided. I have been told that not everyone has had success when they tape their shoulder back. Sometimes when my wife has taped my shoulder, within ten minutes I have had to take it off as it has made things worse. I find it is important to set my shoulder properly before it is taped. This does not mean pulling one’s shoulder back, as in standing “to attention”, it is more like rolling your scapula in at it’s point closest to your spine without pulling your shoulder back too much. I call it tucking my scapula in.

One of the strategies that is used by some therapists to hopefully improve the condition of sufferers of TOS, is to ask the patient to improve their posture such that the sufferer imagines that they are opening up their thoracic outlet. This usually means the sufferer is made aware of their poor posture and it is recommended that they correct the poor posture by pulling their shoulder back. This may work in the short term as the sufferer uses compensatory muscles to correct the apparent problem, however it is my opinion that this is not a sustainable position and the compensatory muscles cause other problems such as T4 syndrome and rhomboid muscle problems. I believe that they should be telling TOS sufferers to avoid using the affected arm and avoid actions which increase the pain in that upper back area between the neck and the scapula on the affected side. After a while one’s condition will improve, the temptation is to try and do things in a normal way too soon but unfortunately this can flare up the symptoms again. It is important that the sufferer and the insurance company is patient with their expectations. I have taken many pain killing drugs and they just masked the problem allowing me to do things which made the root cause even worse. if you can improve your condition without using pain killing drugs you will know that you are not worsening the underlying cause of your problem. I wish you all well regards towelhorse.