Still Working but not my job
 

I had a very physical job from 94 till Feb of this year. Lots of heavy pulling/pushing/dragging and lifting. As well as 2 hours of fork lift driving a day where I mostly had to sit with my upper body twited backwards when carrying load that you couldn't see over. A few years ago back in 05 I injured myself at work where I couldn't breathe (actually think I already had this problem) they sent me to ER where they said I shifted my rib cage and pulled the two muslces that support the rib cage. They took me off work for one week and and sent me to a chiropractor who I continued to see after that when needed. The fork lift really made my neck feel like crap...or so I thought. I also suffer from a severe case of TMJ which caused a neat little thing to happen with my tongue (after I was diagnosed with TOS).

My job has been giving me a lot of grief since this happened and it's really frustrating. However, they have me on light duty...sitting at a computer eight hours a day inputting data with my "good" hand that I don't normally use to do everything...which now I am having to use that arm to do everything.

I am now getting concerned because I can feel "slight" symptoms in my hand/wrist that I felt shortly after that first accident...which I kind of wrote off...the tingling from the shoulder to the hand thing in the now bad arm. Darvacets help minimally but I still can't sleep. I feel like someone shoved an ice pick in my shoulder and I feel like I have about 25 donkey kong juniors climbing up the muscles in my upper arm near my shoulder. I feel like there is clay packing around the donkey kong juniors. I get pains in the sides/front upper and lower of my wrist. I have horrible pain and sensitivity on the top of my shoulder and pressure points in my neck and trapezius muslce.

The other day I noticed that my right leg near the middle/lower part of my calf it started going numb....and tingling in my ankle. At therapy tuesday the therapists rubbed something out near the T2 and rib cage intersection and I haven't felt that anymore. I also have chest pains sometimes. My neck feels like the description they give for the feeling of whiplash and I feel like 2 people are playing tug of war with my neck on the muscles between the shoulder blades and spine. I think I might actually be able to break a window with one of those muscles as tight as they feel. I feel like if someone were to touch me....my nerves would have the same effect as those electrical globes. However, the nerve test revealed no pinched nerves in my arm. Yet, I did have an MRI done of my neck and it shows that I have a bulging c4-c5 and a bulging c5-c6 as well as a broad protruding bulging c7. My chiropractor thinks I have a pinched nerve somewhere in my thoracic vertebrae. The physical therapists tells me I have TOS and the workers comp doctor said I have a trapezius sprain, hand/wrist and forearm tendinitis, shoulder sprain and tennis elbow.

Anyways, thought I would share a little there....I think I started babbling after a while....you understand right?

I don't like the fact that they want me to start taking this lyrcia. I already feel like a zombie not having any sleep and being doped up on darvacets.

My question is this.

Hello & Welcome,
I thought I'd make a new thread for you so we could all say hello.

The physical therapists tells me I have TOS and the workers comp doctor said I have a trapezius sprain, hand/wrist and forearm tendinitis, shoulder sprain and tennis elbow.

I think WC likes to break it down so they don't have to call it TOS ...:confused:
or they don't want to "know" about TOS..:rolleyes:

My RSI/TOS stuff was called by all those names by my drs too - but wc didn't really even want to accept those in my case.

I think they really need to rethink your light duty .. :(

do your PT people or DC know how to do trigger point release ?
those tx should help with the ice pick and knots -
but really as long as you are doing that kind of work they will continue to reappear.:(

We have some wc info throughout this forum and a wc forum here also
[ http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum30.html ]
- you can use the search tool to find specifics and be sure look thru the useful sticky threads too.

TOS often doesn't show on an EMG. It might show on an MRI of the brachial plexus (not a cervical MRI), but not always. It is a diagnosis of exclusion....when they have ruled out everything else. The WC doc....aren't they a joke ?! Yes, you could have those 5 diagnoses.....or you could have the one diagnosis that would cover all of those symptoms.

When I was fighting for a diagnosis (have you heard "it's all in your head" or that you are a malingerer yet ? If not, you probably will ;) ) I thought to myself.....if a doc who understands TOS tells me I don't have it, I'll accept that, but I'm not going to let a quack who doesn't even know what it is tell me that I don't have it !

Listen to your PT. Officially, they can't diagnosis you, so if they are saying "yeah, we are pretty sure it's TOS", believe them. They have nothing to gain for being right and everything to lose if they are wrong.

Good luck !