Personaly, my symptoms tend to return.

Some exercices have been very usefull, until i start working, because of perineural fibrosis.

You have perineural fibrosis classicly if you get tos from rsi - repetitive strain injury.

So what that perineural fibrosis do ? Each time you have improvement, the viscious cycle of the perineural fibrosis get you symptoms back.

Check my profil and see my posts.

Mental

TOS is very frustrating.

It is a depressing condition so you need to work today on this. You need to build resillience and keep a sense of self esteem.

Tos damages :

1) You eventually have chronic pain
2) You can't do activities
3) Incertainty about the futur for many reasons
4) A sense of helplesness
5) In many case you lost your social statut, that can lower self esteem.

By nature, all this can lead to depression if you don't accept early what you have, if you don't stop idealizing the past or being positive while searching for solution. I think TOS make more mental damages than physical damages.

Personaly i have tos, and i'm mentaly OK. Because i know what i have, i accept it.

And because sometimes it's better, until i start working because fataly, i have this perineural fibrosis : Symptomes come slowly ect.

I would like to see this post when i was newly to tos world.

Check my post for perineural fibrosis researsh, scalenes exercices (gravity exercices can relieve your symptomes if you have scalenes involvement, until you start working again).



Btw, i'm much better than before. In fact i have not chronic pain. My main problem is i can't work without having pain.
In this world you need to work like hell... i mean intensively..

http://www.google.com/search?q=resil...w=1440&bih=780

But can you drive? Open a jar? Do normal activities without being in pain? Describe "chronic pain" is it fentanyl type pain or Ibupfrofen type pain? *and I realize it's different for everyone. Is it in the arms? Shoulders? Neck? All the above?

Trying to get a garden variety example of what a typical day is like with someone who has this and continues to "function."

Do you continue any sort of fitness or exercise? Do I try yoga or stay away from it? I feel like I am lacking direction other than some great stretches to try out. *Which I have and will continue to do.

I hear what you're saying about accepting reality and not getting too depressed. I think for me it's more anxiety than depression of how I will maintain a roof over my head and put food on the table.

End of the quote post.

Most of have gone thru the stages of grief over loss of health..
The five stages of grief:

[ Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”

Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”

Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”

Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”

Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what happened.”]
http://helpguide.org/mental/grief_loss.htm


I can do many more things now that I could back in 03-06.
Drive, garden, remodel, stack hay. paint - art & walls.

Scrubbing the tub and painting are the main trouble makers now - the leaning over & the reps or holding my arm up to paint , give me sore neck or shoulder for a few days...
If I stay on the computer for too many hrs in a row my forearms start to complain and my elbow too, but time away doing other whole body things usually resolves it.

I have RSI type TOS with some myofascial discomfort on/off now, maybe some restless leg in the mix too. Couple times a week take a Tylenol PM, IB or Aleve so I can get to sleep without fidgeting and for any annoying aches.
Cold damp weather affects me also..
Usually add the heating pad in the evenings after heavy activities, hot showers/baths and/or E stim in the mornings to get things loosened up.


One tip from Sharon Butlers program - her TOS stretches start at the top of the body then progress down & outward from there.
It made sense to me to stretch in a progression like that, vs just stretching randomly from one place to another, it's all connected ....


should add that I'm not working at any full time job- since 04... and if I had to go back to full time work it would have to be a job with lots of flexibility/movement in my duties.

@343v343:

I have tried many different things, including some yoga, and for rounded shoulders and improving posture, nothing has been as effective as brugger relief pose and sternal positional swiss ball stretch. When you look at these, it should be apparent why. They are basically the direct reversal of the bad posture.

"Static back" is also useful as it puts your hips, shoulders and head on a level plane. You can search it on the web or find it in an Egoscue book.

Most Yoga is safe, but you may find some poses and stretches to aggravate your condition. Over time you'll learn what you have to avoid.

Regarding work at the computer, I have benefited from setting a timer for 45 mins after which I get up, pace, stretch, relax, etc. for 5 - 20 mins depending on how I'm doing.

Regarding the idea that "[strengthening is] the only way to help cure muscle imbalance and posture", that's not my perspective at all after going through the Egoscue books and adding a couple things I mentioned above. You can improve posture without weights.

For fitness, I initially did nothing as everything aggravated me. But I have improved and am now doing Chinese qi gong (also spelled "chi kung"). I like that I can easily do it indoors at any time and that it has a variety of movements to it.

I still work and drive and have functional use of my hands. I was putting in 3 - 6 hours a day doing conservative therapy and research for several weeks. At http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post802248-72.html I posted what worked for me, what specific relief I had and what did not work for me. As you can see from the post, I experienced a lot of improvement.

Now on a typical day, I do 30 min of self therapy, plus another handful of sessions of self therapy ranging 5 - 20 mins. A good day is minor symptoms. A bad day is major and on a bad day I cannot work much. In the past week, I've had 2 bad days and 1 almost-bad day. In July when my symptoms flared up hard, I had mostly bad days.

HTH

Btw what does your id "343v343" mean?

Another thing that has changed for me is that I'm much more in tune with my body. I pay attention to all the little signs, symptoms and messages. Before July I used to mostly ignore that stuff, but now know the price of that approach.

I get discouraged too. TOS is indeed depressing. But I remind myself that:
-- I have some things that work now.
-- I have been making progress.
-- I built these problems over a long period of time, so it's natural it will take awhile to get better.
-- I have many more things to try.

Yeah tos is not just about classic chronic pain, it's way more than this.

Nice way of putting it Chroma.
That's probably the best advice for 343v343.
You have to be in tune with your body!!!!!! NEVER ignore those niggles. Nurture and work with your body.
It's simple..... If you ache, you STOP. You control the pace on how you feel comfortable.
Even if I feel quite well I make sure that I don't overdo things because I know what the end result will be. If you have TOS then you won't escape the discomfort/pain from too much exertion. KNOW YOUR LIMITS!
Of course that doesn't mean to sit idle all day, you have to keep agile to prevent stiffness.
Good luck with pain management

343v343 is kind of random. My company name I started is based on the word "eye" so it looks like eye in 343. The v343 is that it's like Eye vs. eye because my "company" and the numerous long days getting it off the ground have cost me my health and given me tos. So in other words - me versus me. My real name is Chris.

It's encouraging to read of those having functional lives with TOS I think the hardest part thus far has been not believing I am doomed to a lifetime of debilitating pain or losing the ability to drive myself or use my arms and hands.

Surgery for me is off the table and unless it is a life threatening vascular issue I can't see any reason to gamble on poor results. My biggest issue now is forearm pain and noticeable weakening of my arms. I know this relatively common but still discouraging to say the least. Holding small objects is harder then holding heavier objects seemingly because with heavier objects I am recruiting other muscles to help.

I have been doing static back and the brugger pose but I am wondering how long I should be doing those. I am hoping that I can work to permanently correct the rounded shoulders -- I will probably skip the weights for now but I will give yoga a try.

Good feedback on seizing the days that are good and taking breaks when things are not. I guess my fear and anxiety is that I am "undoing" any stretches and posture correction the minute I sit back at a computer.

Things at home have been stressful and I find myself having a hard time with the mental aspect of all of this. The fear of not being able to work or being disabled is horrifying. Unfortunately my hands and arms are not as effective and that scares me a lot. I appreciate reading that some of you are able to continue onward.

Personaly it's the uncertainty than give me problems.

I mean if someone told me that i will never work or i will die from tos i may say "ok" and that all.

"No matter what you try it will fail" is better than "One day you may have a chance of working".

That all