I wonder if any of these trigger points might be the cause?

http://www.pressurepointer.com/Serra...ger_points.htm
http://www.pressurepointer.com/Latis...ger_points.htm

the main chart in case I missed another possibility -
http://www.pressurepointer.com/pain_reference_chart.htm

If you can press a tennis ball against a wall or lay on the floor and roll on it or any small ball -
or have a friend help - press around on your back in the areas shown to see if any small knots or specific sore spots are there.

If you find any - here is the user guide on how to resolve them-
http://www.pressurepointer.com/Users1.htm

I personnaly have that when i relax my mind, i realy think it indicate a change in degree of compression.

less compression - compression return a bit - less compression scheme.

weird

im glad i dont get this

From looking at the Pressure pointer I can see that despite my VTOS issue the SCM seems to be very involved regarding many of my symptoms. I shall definately bring this topic up when I have my follow up with my surgeon to see if he can advise about PT to help.
Thanks for another great link.
SD38

I have a lot of SCM problems on my symptomatic side including extreme tightness and pain. When the tightness is bad, I get dizziness and sometimes pallor. When I get the SCM and other neck muscles to relax, the dizziness subsides.

See my thread at: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?p=795191

Also, I've been doing these stretches at least a few times a day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XlxMuuGIvI

And checking for and releasing tension in my neck throughout the day.

And finally getting some soft tissue work from chiros.

The upshot is that my neck tension and dizziness has come down about 70% in a few weeks.

HTH

Dizziness is a huge prob so need to try everything I can to relieve it NATURALLY!!! I'm sick of pain killers. I've managed to ween myself off the paracetamol and ibuprofen combination that I have been on since my op 25 days ago. What awful side effects... Nausea, even more headachy, dizzy, gassy and bloated YUCK! Believe it or not, the pain from my surgery I am very pleased to say is tolerable its just the muscle tightness and head/dizzy issue that concerns me at the moment.
Nice tips Chroma AGAIN!!!!... gonna give them a go along with your suggestion of the Muscle Relaxation Meditation for the rest of next week as I'm still signed off from work until at least 3/10/11 and will let you know how it goes.
Hope that the SCM release keeps up for you.... Like you suspect its probably triggered by an unconscious mental tension???? I'm beginning to think that there is alot more to MEDITATION and self healing. POSITIVE THINKING. It sounds like you have found a successful release technique, just make sure that you dedicate that time to yourself to continue working on them. All the best SD38

I've been thinking about this lately and wonder if maybe I had/have a cycle of dysfunction. I'm thinking something like:
-- TOS contributes to neck tension
-- stress contributes to neck tension
-- neck tension contributes to vessel impingement
-- vessel impingement contributes to dizziness contributes to stress
-- vessel impingement contributes to neck tension
... and repeat. :-(
I'm speculating on these cycles because by itself, the problem was not resolving. So it made be think that something had to be keeping it going.

Or maybe it's something simpler. One chiro diagnosed me with head/neck misalignment. Another chiro got huge pops on both sides setting my skull/C1. Maybe it's just compressed nerve --> muscle tension --> vessel impingement and that's it.

In any case, thank goodness I've improved! :-)

Hi Chroma, I'm so happy for you. Great news!
ALWAYS keep in mind that time for relaxation (meditation)/stretches/exercises is key and without fail be determined enough to stick to a regime where you can dedicate undisturbed attention to YOURSELF!!!!! Sometimes you just have to say NO to the outside world and announce, I'm having "ME-TIME" .
I think we are all in an age of inevitable STRESS-->PAIN. Everything moves too damn fast and we are all trying to keep up with the rat race. Of course that will cause too much muscle tension ( even though we don't want to admit that to ourselves..... because in this day and age we are supposed to be SUPERHUMAN and juggle all thats thrown at us).
Just sometimes afew deep breathes ( of that marvellous stuff called oxygen) and positive thoughts does wonders. At times just working on my breathing technique to improve my circulation probs is taxing enough! Let's face it, how much time do we actually give ourselves to focus on self-healing???? NOT ENOUGH..... It's time to take back some time!
Keep up the good work Chroma. You have inspired me to totally alter my daily routine to incorporate " ME-TIME".
Best wishes SD38

Thanks. I obviously agree with you about the stress and taking time out.

How many people have problems with C1? I do and I know another person with TOS who has similar misalignment problems. C1 innervates the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suboccipital_nerve