Ragdoll arm
 

Greetings everyone,

Does anyone else have problems with their whole arm falling dead asleep?

Even before this whole TOS thing, I have, like many of you, slept in a weird position so that my hand or part of my arm falls asleep. However, last night I was woken up at six o'clock in the morning by a noisy roommate only to find my arm completely dead all the way up to my neck/shoulder region. When I sat up in bed, it flopped around like a dead rag doll arm. I had to take my other hand and shake blood back into it. Why had this happened ? Apparently, my special pillow had fallen off my bed so that while I was still sleeping in my normal position, the thoracic outlet area must have gotten too compressed. What bugs me is that this has happened one other time in the last week, though not as severely because I still had my pillow under my head. If my roommate had not woken me up, I could've kept sleeping quite comfortably on my completely dead right (and dominant) arm and who knows what would've happened. For those of you that don't know my history, I was diagnosed with arterial neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome and have been putting off a first rib resection mainly because I'm too freaked out about it to go through with the procedure!:eek:

Hi Melissa. I got that numb arm all the time and for a very long time. I was told to sleep on my back but never could achieve success until just now. I FIANLLY changed to sleeping on my back and now I don't wake w/numb arms.
This was the key for me--
-a wedge under my lower legs keeps me comfortably flat on my back
-a smaller tempurpedic pillow for the correct neck postion
-some rolled up and taped bubble wrap placed in between my shoulder blades resting vertically right under the pillow

I had a PT help me figure it all out. And dr Newkirk invented the bubble wrap idea but his was 2 rolls; one under the neck horiz and the other vertically just below it. for me the tempurpedic works much better. but none of it works for me w/o getting the knees up. It keeps me from turning onto my side and keeps me comfortable. I haven't invested in a proper one yet but I'm working on it.

I wake up like that several times per night, Melissa. I'm primarily neuro TOS.

I can't sleep on my back because my own snoring/choking wakes me up (but I tested negative for sleep apnea) I position myself well on my side, but if that huggy pillow slips out I end up with my head turned to the left which seems to be what compresses my nerve.

Melissa - this does happen to me. I think that its from sleeping on my side, and I have yet to figure out how to NOT sleep on that side. I like the wedge idea Fern.

This was one of the first things that my surgeoin asked me after he had diagnosed TOS. I get it once or twice a month.