Edgelow's Therapy
 

Has anyone done this before? Did it help? What does it involve? A vascular surgeon recommended I try it for one month before scheduling a surgery so I wanted to get some idea on how helpful it has been for others before purchasing the home kit.

I bought the kit on the recommendation of Louis Messina at UCSF. Darren Schneider worked with Messina. Now both have moved to the East Coast.

The only thing I found helpful was abdominal breathing. I couldn't do anything else without flaring.

I went on to have surgery with G. James Avery in SF. I came out of the surgery worse off, unfortunately.

Good luck,
Kelly

There are some older threads -2006-7 ish?? here mentioning the Edgelow therapy & kits, and some descriptions of how to use/do it, but no one recently has been mentioning it at all.

I don't even know if that is the best way for you to go, I'd hate to see the money spent and it not be what you need.

I think finding a very very good PT or body worker /myofascial expert that can help you with some hands on/manual therapy would be more helpful than a kit & video tape.

If you do a search on the forum for it, I had asked the same question awhile back, and a couple of people told me it didnt work for them. If you find it,let me know where,I am still curious about it.I dont think it is too large an investment so why not? Edgelow is retired now so not sure how you find it.

The PT that I am doing on Marc's recommendation http://www.andoaston.com/home has REALLY helped me. It is Rib and joint mobilization and soft tissue mobilization. Have you checked into this place:
The TOS center of New Jersey. I found it online awhile back
http://www.tosnj.com/Index.html

oh this guy has some videos he made doing some Edgelow type stuff -
http://www.pureperformancetraining.c...thoracicoutlet

The TOS center of New Jersey is unfortunately 2.5 hours from me :(. I called Edgelow's office and the receptionist told me to call 800-945-0302 Medical Dynamics to obtain the kit (haven't done so yet). I think I definitely should try either this or Jomar's recommendation on a mysofascial release expert for the next 4 weeks. The problem is, NYC has TONS of physical therapy places who claim to have some experience with these techniques and I have no idea who is good and who isn't. And I am just to the point that I can't shop around for a PT, as I only want to give this one more shot (3rd time) before moving forward with surgery. I feel that at the end of the day, PT may help some people especially if their symptoms are not as severe, but it also is a temporary relief. To basically get through every day, every week living with TOS means continued PT for probably years to come. I just don't have it in me anymore and have almost lost hope with any conservative treatment :confused:

How long have you been doing the PT with Ando and do you feel it is something you will have to continue to do to maintain your symptoms/pain?

Also, the link Jomar posted with the Edgelow videos shows rib mobilization and soft tissue release so I am guessing his therapy is similar to what you are doing right now and if it helps, more indication that maybe I should give it a shot. Dr. Schneider however recommended that I only do the posture and breathing exercises and start very slowly and not to do try to do the entire program because it will make me worse in his opinion.

http://www.bettermovement.com/index....sical-therapy/

This place in NYC mentions myofascial release and the Feldenkrais method which I have seen posted about in this forum as well. In your opinion, would you think it's something worth checking out as opposed to Edgelow's home kit? Maybe I should do 2 weeks with both methods, but that probably isn't long enough to really know if it helps.

I would definately check it out. It lists TOS on its home page. Ask for someone who is familiar with it. Myofacial release and Trigger pt therapy are both good techniques for TOS. I just found a chiro who does this. He also does ART.Ask if anyone there knows about Rib Mobilization. It really couldn't hurt to try it , since surgery is your last option. My PT says to give a place 2 weeks to see if it is helping(2-3 times per week. I might try a month,but the last few I tried for 2-3 months and it didnt help. After going 2x I could tell that it was better than anything else I had tried. Feldenkriess is a movement technique that I have been meaning to try,I dont think its a cure.

If you can manage it , you could try both , or just go for a single evaluation/intro type visit first .. To see and get a feel for what they know, before getting stuck in a set of sessions..

And you could probably tell right away if it is not a good place or person for you..
Sometimes it does take a combo of things to make a difference therapy wise.

But if you have the extra cervie ribs , sorry I can't recall if that is your situation or not at the moment:o... it may be a waste of time /money to expect any changes in a short time frame. They might be able to help with pain relieving therapies though..

Edgelow Protocol
 

I have the Edgelow Protocol, but like Kellysf, I was never able to do all of the exercises. I also had a failed surgery 21 years ago so I'm not interested in anymore of that.

I've had better luck doing the Sharon Butler Self Care Program for TOS and joint mobility exercises from Scott Sonnon. I've kind of combined ideas from both of them. It hasn't cured me but I'm doing better than I have in a long time.

I've been working at it for little over two years, though. Improvements come slowly and it takes a lot of patience and dedication.