Folks,

I'm wondering if I'm a good bet for TOS. I've been battling shoulder and now elbow pain for a year + and have seen several orthos, physiatrists, chiropractors, etc. with no help or relief.

Here's a little history:

* Initial Injury: About a year ago, I felt something "give way" in the posterior of my shoulder doing a heavy lat pulldown. I felt like it was a muscle pull in my trap area. Didn't think much of it and ignored it for 2-3 months and just tried to deal with my posterior shoulder pain.

* MRI Results: Got an MRI which showed posterior partial tears in my capsule ligaments. Orthos didn't think much of it.

* Original Diagnosis: "Scapular Diskinesis." Something that PT should solve they said. Given a very low "significance score" in terms of the injuries.

* Physical Therapy: Made it worse. New burning type pain on my scap and armpit joined the party. This pain seemed to seep into my upper arms at times. I also felt some wierdness in my fingers. This drove me to get both a cervical MRI and EMG.

* MRI/EMG Results: Zippo. As a result, Neurosurgeon's continue to boot me out of their office.

* New Symptoms: Twitching muscles around the scap. This then blew up all around my body (after searching the internet and finding that this is a symptom of ALS...great).

* New Symptom Most Recent: Severe, ACUTE elbow pain. I was about to have arthoscopic surgery on my shoulder and all of a sudden I couldn't bend my right elbow without getting excruciating, debilitating pain. Funny though, it's fine if I have my elbow at my side, but if my elbow is positioned away from my body and I bend the arm...BAM! This pain petrifies me.

* Latest Diagnosis: Went to a shoulder specialist at Beth Israel in Boston and he didn't think anything was structurally wrong with my shoulder and thought my issues were more nervy. Now I'm on neurontin and seeing some improvement in the elbow issue.

I've done some research online and it seems like my initial injury is kinda in the same location where the thoracic nerve is located. Also, this nerve innervates the serratus anterior muscle which helps keep the scap in place...and my scap has proved to wing? I've also read that the "burning" symptom is a sign of TOS. Other alignments: EMG sometimes shows normal, TOS often mimics rotator cuff injuries.

Does this at all lign up?

Do any of you share the same symptoms I have?

Who the heck will listen to me? A Neurologist?

The only thing that doesn't line up is the sudden elbow pain.

I need to investigate because I'm going insane.

If you have any insights please help.

Thanks.

Ky