[Coop42]

Hey everyone, I've had TOS for about 33 years total now. I had surgery on one side 22 years ago and it made me worse, been on disability ever since. I also had 2 lower back surgeries, years ago, that left me with chronic lower back and leg pain. The physical therapists I saw back then were no help to me. They had no clue what to do with me. It was all the wrong stuff.

In last 3 1/2 years I've improved a lot, mainly by doing joint mobility exercises. The one's taught by Scott Sonnon and Steve Maxwell. I've also been doing a lot of self-myofascial release, and vacuum cupping. Those three things have helped me tremendously. I wish I had known about them years ago.

I've come to the conclusion, that having the right type of therapy following surgery is critical, and it may take years. I think it all depends on how long you've had TOS before you were diagnosed. It was 11 or 12 years in my case.

I also think, that the longer you've had TOS, the more of your body it starts to affect. It really helped me out a lot learning about fascia, and how it covers your entire body. Once I it started to understand that, and take a full-body approach to my movement, I started to make good progress.

Like I said, I've been working on this for 3 1/2 years, so far, but I feel like I can improve a lot more if I keep at it. I started making videos of some of the things I've been doing and posting them on my Youtube channel. I had a few people asking me some questions about the things I do, and I figured it would be easier to make videos, than to try and explain things here. Hopefully, they will be helpful to someone out there.

The link is below.

[semmons]

I had TOS undiagnosed for 4 years. I recently came into contact with a doctor who diagnosed me and sent me to a physical therapist. I was introduced to the Edgelow Protocol, it relieved some of the pain and I am able to be without my medication. I met Peter Edgelow in Hayward, CA. I called therapy offices locally and found another therapist who knows of this program and they tuned it to what i needed and i did see improvements. It is always worth a shot, the most important thing is posture, it is hard to break habits but it does make a difference. Good luck.

[Coop42]

Originally Posted by semmons

I had TOS undiagnosed for 4 years. I recently came into contact with a doctor who diagnosed me and sent me to a physical therapist. I was introduced to the Edgelow Protocol, it relieved some of the pain and I am able to be without my medication. I met Peter Edgelow in Hayward, CA. I called therapy offices locally and found another therapist who knows of this program and they tuned it to what i needed and i did see improvements. It is always worth a shot, the most important thing is posture, it is hard to break habits but it does make a difference. Good luck.

I've done some of the Edgelow protocol, and it really didn't work well for me, but that's great that it's helped you. I know a few other people have had good luck with that. I agree with you that posture is very important, but lasting improvements have taken a long time, for me. Slow and steady wins the race here.