Marc, it was great that you shared the things that you reclaimed. That definitely brightened up this thread.

But you are FREAKING ME OUT when you say you will try to reclaim P90X!!! Please consider more TOS-friendly forms of fitness. I would hate to see you regress. :D

Marc,
i just cannot believe you can do that stuff. i wrote all that off. i never thought a person could do that ever ever again.

wow.

I guess I could post what I couldn't do during my worst times, because now I can do pretty much what I want, but the limitations now are based more on my lack of fitness & age (57)..

Worst time -
couldn't rotate my arms/wrist & lost much fine finger use & coordination & strength
extremely tight neck, shoulders & upperback with deep burning pain in the C & T spine area
a weird buzzing sensation and pain & tightness in forearms, sporadic sharp cramps in wrist and back of hands.

barely could do personal care & bathroom things:o
could not even make simple spaghetti or brown ground beef - and I like to cook
kids had to start doing their own laundry - that was a good thing LOL
small trips for groceries a as big trip to stock up was too much - still had kids at home so lots of food was needed..
always tried to park facing out to avoid turning to look behind me and unnecessary steering wheel turns
and would drive a longer route if it meant less turns & straight highway was best , I could use my hand at the bottom of the steering wheel or even my knee..:o

When they were still having me do light duty at work but 10 hr days, I barely made it in to work and then home , luckily mostly highway & straight shot.. I would get home and get my ice for my forearms and heat for my upper back and just collapse in the recliner..and I was taking way to much Ibuprofen
to keep going at work.. messed up my gut a bit I think..sensitive tummy now.

Now that I'm recalling it all I could keep going :o, but that was in 03/04, a long time ago- by mid 04, I had found the good chiro who did so much to resolve the spasms & trigger points & the adv PT guy that did the rib mob that dropped my stuck & raised top ribs back into place..and he was the one that suggested the foam roll work to open the chest & drop the shoulders.

Plus all the home care things I learned and did consistently since by then I was off work, and had found some TOS forums reading how bad it can get , I wanted to do all I could to not get into that level of pain.

By 05 I was 85% percent back to normal. So about 2.5 yrs of bad times, but some time was wasted dealing with wc and MD not realizing it was more than misc repetitive strain injuries. I didn't know anything about TOS back then.. just had slow dial up and was on a message board for RSIs.


Now I have mostly minor myofascial aches/pains/stiffness but I can get it loosened with a hot shower or just by moving around.
But still holding my arms up for more than a minute or 2 and I need to switch them back and forth to let the blood flow move again..
Luckily I didn't need to do that very often at all.

Marc, You are Leading the torch out of this siht hole black tunnel and we love ya man!

It will be the female/lean P90x track at first but I hope to eventually get there. This is only after my TOS is GONE!!! Dr. Angle expects a complete recovery for me (he's had a Navy Seal return to active duty).

what about the notorious 3 year post surgery mark? isn't that a scary thing?

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I've read recurrence can occur months to years after initial surgery. I don't know of any specific 3 year landmark.

Here is an old thread in which we discussed recurrence - Scar Tissue and Adhesions Post-Surgery

you had mentioned in a post that many get it back in 3 years. i was under the impression that surgery can be bad for you cause scar tissue can make it all come back. i have changed my entire career because of tos. if i had surgery, or even if conservative helps, i would be very scared of going back in to computer work and having it just come right back on me! you are jumping right in to old activites and that is shocking to me.

Perhaps I was citing a source that most recurrence occurs within 3 years. But I don't believe recurrence rates are high.

The source of my issues (cervical and TOS) is believed to be anatomical and now corrected. I am not going to live my life in fear of recurrence, but I am very careful to stay well within my body's current limitations.

anatomical? you mean u had the extra rib?