[chroma]

I had minor TOS symptoms for years, but didn't know what was going on. Then it flared up hard in early July which is what lead me to learning about it. I made progress through self therapy (Egoscue books and misc stretches), chiro and other things, but by mid-October my progress had plateaued. You can easily imagine how disappointing that was!

But I'm now making progress again and thought I would share what's helping:

1) PT with Joyce Wilkinson (http://pogsonpt.com/contactinfo.html)

I'll post about Joyce in a separate thread.

2) Break reminder software for the computer. I had lost my discipline regarding breaks and this got me doing the right thing again.

The default was 50 mins of work + 10 min break, but I found that by 50 mins I already felt stagnant in my circulation and energy. I tweaked it down to 45 mins and that worked. I then tweaked the break to 11 mins so I can get in a little more self therapy.

In addition to stretches, I always include pacing in the break for the circulation benefits.

The very first day, even on 50+10, I noticed that my overall energy level came up. Always a good thing.

Thanks to Jo*mar for posting about this earlier which is what stimulated me to try it.

You can search google for "mac break reminder" or "pc break reminder" to find such software. I may get something for my smartphone as well so I can benefit in other situations.

3) Diazepam 2.5mg or 5mg as needed. These stop my muscle spasms and neck tension. I probably use it about 4 X per week.

... That's pretty much it. I also saw Dr. Gelabert at UCLA who confirmed TOS and referred me to Joyce.

I also have some other issues on top of, or related to TOS that I may post about later.

I still have problems and symptoms, but less severe than before. I'm $working more too.

I hope these notes help someone.