Need help
 

My symtpoms keep coming back and dont know what the cause is, its been 4 months of treatment now and i only feel slightly better. Im really frustrated at the moment and i feel like maybe the only thing that would save me is surgery.

All these pains are making me suicidal and i spend a large part of each of my day fighting away these negative thoughts. i dont know what to do anymore, I feel like i cant be cured because the pain just keeps coming back..

Are you under a Drs care at all?
Any meds to help with pain levels- hopefully only temporarily?

What is you avg daily pain level?

Maybe you said elsewhere, but what kind of treatment have you been getting for 4 months?

Also, don't give into the suicidal thoughts. You certainly have not exhausted all possible treatment options including surgery which has worked for many TOS sufferers!

If you are experiencing suicidal feelings please read and share on our Survivors of Suicide forum (we call it the SOS forum for short) - they are a truly caring group - and the sticky thread has hot line # and tips for times of crisis.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum29.html

We also have a variety of Mental Health Conditions forums that might have helpful info Depression, Anxiety and OCD etc..-here -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum84.html


If you are working at a job that causes symptoms to increase - any treatment & self care will take much longer to see long lasting improvements.
Do you have the option to use Voice Recognition software at work?
Vista & Win 7 and Macs have it built in - you just have to set it up & get a good microphone - a good sound card in the computer makes a difference too.
Dragon Naturally Speaking is the most well known VR software - quite often they have specials advertised- as it can get pricey with no discounts.

Right now on Ebay someone has 10 for US $21.99 each - & 3.99 shipping
http://compare.ebay.com/like/3504542...Types&var=sbar

I would also like to add, that some drugs will cause suicidal thoughts and further depression.

SSRI's and SSNI's including Cymbalta, Prozac and others in these groups

antiseizure drugs --Neurontin, Lyrica

high dose opiates-- may cause significant dysphoria and suicidal thoughts in some people

So if you think your medication may be at fault, please discuss this with your doctor. Most of these medications need careful tapering to discontinue. Sudden discontinuance may be harmful.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys , I jus dont know maybe a change of occupation is the next step to see lasting improvement because to this point even with stretching, PT and chiro i can never really get more then 2 days of where the sympotms arent bothering and painful. But mostly i cannot go back to doing what i loved the most which was body building and by the looks of it i never will. Jus hard to take it all in at my young age and accept the fact that i have ristrictions because of something that is beyond my control.. Im wondering if surgery is the path for me, i have another appointment scheduled with a surgeon in a few days so ill see what he thinks.

even switching to part time or changing your job for six months could help i think. i know if i worked full time i would be dead by now

faith keeps me going, not religious faith but i keep thinking somehow someday my body will heal itself lol

I think your right, I have really been listening to my body lately and its telling me it doesnt like coming back to a compueter for 40hrs a week. It also doesnt like to much strenuous activity, but it does really like it when i go to the gym and work all those posterior muscles it makes me feel really good after it and for days to follow.

I think switching occupations into something with more mobility as but not to strenous for a while will definately help me. the static posture and repatative movements of working at a computer all day long are not doing me any favours.

Is it possible to achieve lasting improvement to the point where the symptoms are that minor they dont affect your life as much ? I go fward then it comes back so im wondering what will it take to continue progressing foward and foward.

i definitely think its possible to heal, it's a balancing act that will take years to figure out tho. 100 percent recovery though i would never say that because then you get too comfortable, slip into old habits and BAM. mostly recovered, yes

Another symptom which has really been bugging me lately is this pain in my left elbow, the left side is the more symptomatic side and i dunno what its due to. I could be tennis elbow it could be somtethin else. Im thinking bout going to get a cortisone injection and being done with it cause at this point im over dealing with the pain , i got enough on my pain plate and the elbow pain wasnt always there it was only been ther after the second flare up. Im gonna make the step to quit my computer job and get somethin else cause bottom line is spending all that time on a computer jus isnt helping.

It's normal if your symptoms returns. Don't worry too much.

my elbows used to hurt so badi couldnt bend them

now sometimes a little they hurt but i think its when my pecs get too tight

I interpret returning symptoms as a signal from my body that I'm in need of postural adjustments, changes in work habits, exercises or manual therapy.

Let's say I get tightness in my inner forearm close to the elbow. I literally stop what I'm doing right when this happens (not an hour later) and review my posture. I also "change up": if I'm sitting I get up for some pacing, brugger relief etc. If I was already up, I sit down with "cyriax release position" and let my body rest. If I'm stressed, I calm down and relax my muscles.

I think this approach is arguably better than the alternatives of "worry" and "do nothing".

HTH

So the reality of it is, no matter what i do these symptoms are going to stick with me until the day i die? I have not read anywher that anyone has complete relief.

If i can get of the elbow and shoulder pains, the rest i can live with i guess. But when its all there at once i very deep feeling of hoplessness comes over me , i keep thinking back to just a 12 months ago when TOS didnt exist in my life and in jsut a matter or 3 -4 months it feels like i have done irreversable damage.

peopel who get complete relief rarely come back i believe

Thats true, gotta be away to over come this. refuse to let TOS be the end of me.

Would a more physcially demanding job set me back i wonder, Not like manuak labour but maybe a trade of somesort.

Also on really hot days, symptoms are way way less noticable. wonder what that is ?

Circulation. Relaxed muscles.

well got a appoitnment with the vascular surgeon today so guess ill have the answer to alot of my questions. hmmmm

This sums up how I feel also. Except mine is mostly the shoulder. Despite all my other injuries the shoulder is my worst problem.

@billy027 my shoulder used to be so bad. Between Egoscue and chiro it cleared up pretty good.

Yesterday, I had a mild flare up while working at the computer. I did 3 things:

(1) 10 mins of meditation with arms propped up, with a focus on relaxing muscles and maintaining excellent back and neck posture

(2) 10 mins of "static back" which is a nice little therapy since gravity does all the work. It's great to put this after (1) since (1) can make the back tired.

(3) 10 mins of misc stretches and therapies like first rib adjustment with a strap

Afterwards, my shoulder pain, finger tingling and muscle spasms were 100% gone and stayed gone for several hours.

So maybe these are some things you can try. HTH

@Everyone, regarding how long we'll be in this mess, I'm positive that people with complete resolution do not hang out here, so don't let the "sample bias" get you depressed.

Thats very true, people that do find resultion do not spend much time on here, And with that being said i spoke to surgeon yesterday he told me the next step is to quit my computer dominated job and find something mobile. He told me To continue strengthening but not to Bulk. He said the condition can clear and it can clear for good. You just have to remove all aggrivating factors and get it right.

I am quitting my office job this week and i already have a cafe/ barista job that i am going to start. Not many repetative movments and alot more mobility. Lets see how this goes.

awesome, congratz! i really think you'll notice a huge difference


my shoulders are the cause of all of my problems yet they themselves have never hurt that badly which is why i never suspected anything was really wrong with them until i looked at my back in a mirror :eek:

Lol so the other day i got a new playstation game, and i have not been able to play it because the act of simply sitting there or laying there or whatever holding the ps3 controller in my hand causes that much irratation that i cant continue to play. Its very starnge it causes me more irratation then going to the gym or even computer work. I Literally cant sit there holding the controller for longet then 10 minutes without getting bad shoulder pains. go figure.

yeah, i actually hurt myself the WORST playing a wii for like 20 minutes. i didn't even realizing it until afterwards, i got shooting pains up and down my arms *knock on wood* that is the only time ive ever gotten really bad shooting pains. little hand gadgets freak me out now but i used to love them.

Yeah that's one of the more interesting things I have learned in all of this. That obvious problems in one place can be sourced from another place, whether it's a trigger point, vessel impingement or something else.

I've been reading "Fixing You: Neck Pain & Headaches" and almost immediately it goes into details on the scapula and how it affects the neck and head.

ill have to look that up!

i know this originated from my screwey shoulders. i have swelling (??whatever it is) in my neck too.

my foam roller is my new bff. i lie on it and my shoulders fall right back into place, i can tell my pelvis is in proper alignment and i just squeeze between that area back there. feedback is everything for me, it keeps me from hurting myself

Possibilities include hypertonicity/trigger points in those anterior muscles, such as the pecs major & minor, serratus anterior and, beneath the scapula, the subscapularis, all of which can be pulling shoulder girdle forward, creating tension in the posterior, which you report is relieved by back exercises.

As other posters have noted in other threads, surgery is effective in only about 30% of cases--and do keep in mind that surgery is drastic treatment...the cutting something away. After the surgery the affected muscle(s) probably will never be the same. Every muscle has at least one antagonist--that's how the body recovers from movement. The bicep flexes, the tricep relaxes and allows the elbow to bend and the hand to rise; after the mvmt is completed, the tricep flexes, the bicep relaxes, the arm straightens. If either side of the equation fails to relax fully, you'll suffer from HT-induced pain. Remember, there's a motor nerve and a sensory nerve servicing every inch of your body's 639 muscles.

I had to change my work
 

Hi hellothere,
I feel 4 u......I'm in the middle of my TOS journey ( I hope ). It took 5-6 years to be diagnosed!!!! I'm currently recovering from my first rib excision op ( day 20 now- and SORE ). Prior to this I experienced all manner of symptoms which came and went and then back again. Like you pain in the elbow was amongst them. I had a cortisone in my wrist for carpal tunnel, it made no difference... not worth it for me.
I had to seriously look into changing my work, hours per day reduced to 3. I also gave up one of my duties as a playground supervisor which included bell ringing- obviously not for me.
I think one of the hardest things with neuro and vascular TOS is that it is not known by many people so in turn no understanding of it in the workplace equates to very little compassion.:mad: This on top of dealing with pain and frustration/confusion as to what is going on with your body is pretty tough to handle!!!!! KEEP STRONG:winky:
I'm a long way from recovery if ever???? but as a newby to this forum it has been a huge source of relief ( sort of )..... it really does help to push you on and to try and remain positive. I'm amazed at how many are suffering from this and yet so little of it is recognised by local doctors- they don't seem to be making connections with peoples varying/persistant symptoms.
Hang in there and keep on looking up and comparing your symptoms... list them all and show them to whoever you think may help you.
Take care:) best wishes from SD38