[DiMarie]

Hi Vix, i was just catching up and saw your post. Say hello on the main forum page as sometimes it is months until I stop in the see what is up on this thread.

Nice to meet you but so sorry that you have this monster to try and lock in the closet.
There are several, well, more then three Canadians on here!
WElcome,
Dianne

[Sea Pines 50]

wow, vix, you are gorgeous! i am so sorry you are in so much pain. afraid i can relate only too well to your story but am so glad you've found us. and under tort law of course it makes NO difference, the fact that you have congenital C-ribs or a history of TOS insofar as any settlement or adjudication of your case goes re that car accident. so make no mistake about that.

i am sure some of your fellow canucks will be chiming in here soon enough and, hopefully one of them will know a good lawyer to steer you to with a good working knowledge AND a track record of winning TOS cases, becca. it's tough but it can be done. i'm just a stupid american and don't know the laws up there or the social services systems, etc. but gosh you're in a tough spot, it sounds like. so hopefully GIBBRN, JAMY, RACHAEL, MUCKER, HAIRDRESSER, and others will see your post up here on this thread and be able to advise you either on the attorney front or on the insurance or assistance front.

at the very least, one of us yanks (not me, i'm a near computer illiterate...) can at least copy your wonderful introduction post down to the main part of the forum where more members and lurkers alike will see it, vix. that way we can get you the help you need... and just as key - you have so much to offer here, with the life experience you have with the TOS monster... would that it were not so!!!

but i do have some information for you, which i gleaned off of the sorehand list (http://www.ucsf.edu/sorehand/), comprising responses to a fairly recent post from an ontario librarian suffering from an RSI who was desperately seeking medical tx. a woman named catherine fenech responded (catherine is the founder, apparently, of international RSI awareness day), as did a poster named peter ryley. i believe both of them live in the toronto area. at any rate, dr. heather tick is very highly recommended and apparently patients come from all over canada and even europe seeking tx with her. her website addy is: http://treatpain.ca/rsi_clinic.html and she is the director of the RSI clinic there in toronto. dr. chong was also mentioned, although it is thought that he is starting to restrict his practice almost exclusively to musicians at this time. he does intramuscular stimulation (a form of acupuncture) using lidocaine. dr. tick does it without lidocaine (dry needling) which according to dr. chan gunn is much more effective in getting the trigger points to release. peter came up with dr. gordon ko (http://www.musclepainrelief.ca/html/dr__gordon__ko.html) out of sunneybrook hospital, who also has an office in markham - but just be aware it can take a good 6 months to get an appointment with him.
{ try this link to get above info - http://www.musclepainrelief.ca/ }

if you sign up for the sorehand list (which is free) you will have access to its archives. sharon butler subscribes to that list and you will see her post every now and again; her website i believe is www.selfcare4rsi.com or something to that effect. or just google her name and she should pop up that way or you can use the search function on the TOS forum (upper righthand portion of your screen...).

now i do realize that your TOS was not caused by a repetitive strain injury, becca. mine was not, either. but don't let that put you off. the sx and the tx are the same. just as the surgical interventions are the same (but we ain't goin' there yet, right?) and good for you for going easy on the meds, too... but please don't be a hero. i just hate to think of you suffering unnecessarily. really wish you the best with finding a most excellent doc and PT -- STAT!!!

i have lived with a raging case of true neurological TOS since just a few years out of high school, which unfortunately was misdiagnosed for many, many years before i finally found competent docs and the right PT's and other types of practioners to start getting real help (i'm a few years older than you now). so i know what you're talking about with the out of control pain levels, the atrophy and the nerve damage, jax. this takes heart and it takes courage to get through. but the way i look at it, if TOS is progressive, then so are those things, right? they gotta be. i can tell how strong your spirit is.

ice (if you can tolerate it) and a sense of humor don't hurt either. if there is any way for you not to lose that internet access right now i think it's going to become extremely important. and i know you have a great deal to offer here too. we need you here.

stay close.

"a positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." herm albright (1876 - 1944)



alison
"Be Brave"

[gibbrn]

I was supposed to be referred to him!!!! Just as I was leaving Ontario of course the recommendation came down for me to see him for botox treatment........wow Alison can't believe you have that site...link doesn't work by the way....
take care
love and hugs,
Victoria

[Sea Pines 50]

yeah, victoria - hey if i'm not mistaken that might even have been the one i emailed you about, thinking you might know of some people in ontario that could help the librarian in distress... but the sorehand folks ended up coming through for her in a major way i'd say!!!

i think the mistake i made originally in trying to put up dr. ko's link was, it somehow is trying to read the parenthesis at the very end as part of the addy. i didn't realize that at the time though, and knowing it wasn't working, i tried editing it to make the 'underlines' in the addy longer, which also didn't do the trick.

now it's too late to edit it. but if you recopy it with just a single underline in both spaces where that appears... being careful not to let it grab that last parenthetical - i think it might work.

ain't hindsight grand, victoria? mine is at least 20-20!!!

but i still think the lady doc got the most votes of confidence and if it were me, i would try her first... in a TOS heartbeat!!! plus which, her clinic looks to be pretty full-service - always a good thang. and no 6-month wait list. what TOS'er can sit around in pain for 6 months... oops i forgot whom i was talking to... sorry about that.

the problem with being on a CP'er wait list for a pain clinic like you, unfortunately, are up there in calgary my love, i believe is that we are among the strongest people on earth. we outlive our co-dependents by a longshot, as well as our docs, our PT's, and the rest of the lot of 'em. so ya truly DO have to wait. it's not like CP kills you (just some dayz maybe we wish it would...).

oh. i did NOT say that!

fortunately, no one reads this stuff up here! better still, victoria, i've a feeling you know what i meant (and you know me by know. i'm kinda sick that way!)

alison
"Be Brave"