Here is what i got,

i got 11 answers and there is not one single bad review!!! Only 2 about T.O.S but still, these 2 review where great. Most of the other reviews where great so i really start to think and believe about his treatment and apparently he is a really nice guy. I got a few comments like Yes first class he is one of a elite group of doctors, He's a honorable guy and lots of other comments about is work and is very high knowledge. It's so hard to take a decisions when you have to spend between 7000 and 10 000$ and when you had bad experiences in the past but.... I hope to get more review but i start to be more confident and really start to think about going to see him.

Hi everyone. I spoke with Husky601 yesterday evening and I have also had a chat with Dr Stoxen, so I thought you might like to hear my experience with TOS/Paget Schroetter's to date.

Possible causes: heavy weight training, swimming, bad posture while writing my books (hours hunched over a laptop), carrying a heavy laptop around on my shoulder, sleeping awkwardly (which led to a two-year period of bad neck (scalene) pain), etc.

I suffered from a sublclavian DVT in my right arm just over a year ago. I was at the gym and my arm went blue, swollen and numb (I had been doing a heavy shoulder session). I went to the A&E of a large hospital in London and they diagnosed the blood clot. I was put on warfarin (seven months) and had to do fragmin injections for 2.5 weeks. It seems they treated me as though I had a leg clot. I was no longer in private healthcare, so I used our state system, which although excellent can be slow. Therefore, I didn't see a cardiovascular consultant until about two months later (I saw a haematologist first who referred me). To cut a long story short, the surgeons (I ended up seeing a team of three together in a meeting) were great (one was a sportsman, so sympathetic), but they recommended a first rib resection and vein repair with only a 50 to 70% likely positive outcome. They also said I could carry on with conservative treatment and just stop the pull ups and heavy duty stuff I was doing on my upper body, as I had made good collaterals and was unlikely to make it any worse. I might be 47, but I am an ex-athlete and love training, so this was hard for me to take...actually, I cried! *edit*

The scans I had were an ultrasound, a doppler ultrasound, a chest x-ray and a venogram. I never had an MRI.

So, I thought about it and watched the op on youtube. I declined the surgery at that stage, as I couldn't believe it was the only solution and it seemed way too invasive. I was also having some acupuncture and physio at the state hospital by this time, which was surprisingly good. I then surfed about and found Dr Stoxen. I added him on FaceBook, we exchanged some messages and we eventually spoke on Skype for about an hour-and-a-half. I can only say that I found him to be very genuine, friendly, and extremely helpful and informative. He seems very passionate about his field and TOS in particular. Having spoken to him, read his articles and watched his presentation online, it all makes a lot more sense to me.

Currently, I am seeing a chiropractor in the UK, having deep tissue massages and some acupuncture. They all definitely help. I also have a consultation scheduled with the top TOS surgeon in the UK in 10 days to get his opinion and to request some more scans. I'd like an MRI. I would definitely consider seeing Dr Stoxen first rather than surgery. I've had a few surgeries in my life for sporting injuries when I was an athlete. Now I am older, I consider things more carefully. It's my body and it is precious to me; I don't just want bits hacked off at whim.

By the way, I found one review online for Dr Stoxen that made me laugh. It began: "First you need to know that Dr. Stoxen can come off as an arrogant jerk. If you can get past that you are in for some good care..."

Happy to answer any questions. Keep positive everyone. The mind is key.

Thank you so much for your review!!! If you are living in the Chicago area you should take a look at the teamdoctorsblog. Pretty interesting and i like this approach.

I had the permission from Dr Stoxen to post this and it seems pretty interesting.

My question was: about your high quality vibration massage unit, are you able to tell me why lots of doctors say to stay away from vibration and your are using vibration massage so why?

Hi

You are talking about apples and oranges. What they are talking about is operating a jack hammer and what we are talking about is therapeutic vibrational massage. Both are completely different effects on the body.

First and foremost, vibration is never the "cause" of thoracic outlet syndrome. It can be the cause of some hand and wrist conditions but that is when you are working a jack hammer in a mine. Go to the National Institute of Health database and search it for thoracic outlet syndrome and vibration and there are only 9 articles about it which relate to working in mines with heavy equipment and not vibration massage http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?...rome+vibration

When you do you will find out they all call it a "compressive" disorder of the areas of the neck, upper back and shoulder. Next think of what can compress this area. Is it from vibration? Never! Can working a jack hammer worsen your condition? Working a jack hammer can worsen anyones health good or bad.

You need to focus on what will remove the compressive forces from the body that is the CAUSE of the condition. ONLY a specific therapy application that reduces the spasms of the EXACT muscles that are compressing the outlet can do that. Because the pectoralis minor, subclavius and other muscles are in nooks and crannies around bones under other muscles (pec major) it is impossible to turn of these compressive spasms any other way except with hands on treatment. No other treatment is precise and accurate enough to get in there and get the job done.

Vibration massage is what we use on the big bulk of muscles to flush out the inflammation but the specific work MUST be done by hand. It is extremely grueling for me as the doctor because each application is done with the pad of my thumb and that is about 1 inch square and each application is about 2-3 minutes in the beginning and to be thorough I hit about 175 - 200 different points depending on how big you are and how long the reflex has been activated.

I have treated thousands of these cases and have not had one I couldnt turn around in 27 years. I dont want to sound too cocky and I am not allowed to guarantee a cure but if you want to get an idea how confident I can reverse a TOS then just call me

What makes this condition difficult is that you must really know the anatomy, you have to understand the body intimately by doing years of deep tissue work and you have to have the power and stamina to get through a tough case. It is a daunting amount of work that does not fit the standard 15 - 30 minutes of deep tissue procedure allotted by most insurance plans. Too bad It has to be done and the faster the better is my motto so I park over you and plow through the mess for hours and hours until it is gone. Enough said or call me I would be happy to talk to you about this in detail.

If you dont get this straight you may end up making a huge mistake you will regret.


Dr James Stoxen DC
President, Team Doctors

The only mild discomfort I've had has been since the DVT when my arm can get a bit achey and swollen if I do too much heavy lifting or try weight training on it again (something I am currently avoiding while I am having the deep tissue massage). I guess that is not surprising as my vein is supposedly kinked like a hosepipe and pinhole since the clot has gone. The only real discomfort I have is in my traps/scapula/shoulder area and my arms occasionally go dead at night if I sleep in a certain way.

I am not sure about his treatment. My chiropractor says it will work but it mat not last very long. There is no way to tell. I just wasn't convinced with the treatment. We didn't talk about a machine. I would be hesitant if treating TOS because I agree with someone who said it could send you into spasms.

I am not convinced at 100% but i am getting really confident. He definitely know TOS really well. I get so much message on Facebook from his patients and not a single one comments was bad. I am sure he is really good but i don't know for long term. I would think if you are able to reversing the symptoms and get the pain away and if you keep working on your posture for long term you should be able to have a normal life without pain. I will call him in the next few weeks but on my understanding he is able treat his patients to return near 100%. Gabrielle is probably able to tell us what he told her about that.

Alexis

Firstly, sorry about that odd post above. I am not sure what happened there. My internet went down as I was trying to write something yesterday and the above was just a part of it. It also appears that I cannot delete or edit it.

I wanted to say that I found what you wrote (via Dr Stoxen) interesting, Husky601, and then talk about the fact that my TOS gives me no pain, just occasional mild discomfort in my lower right arm and upper trap muscle (which is pretty much in lock down). My massage therapist told me I felt like a lump of old rope when she first touched me.

I didn't really talk to him about a long-term prognosis, but I would imagine it depends on the person and how bad their symptoms are etc, and as you said, how committed a person is to maintaining good posture and doing the right things to prevent it from reoccurring. Mine was sudden and I really think it is due to things I did to my body over a period of about two years. I also really think that the more we use computers and other gadgets, we are going to see an increase in these problems.

The brain switches on these spasms, so we have to find a way to get the brain to switch them off. A Chinese medicine/massage therapist/martial arts guy advised me to also try to do it via some meditation and visualisation techniques.

By the way, is it unusual not to be in pain with it? If I didn't want to get back to chucking large pieces of metal about at the gym and have my arm perfectly symmetrical with the other, I might not even be that bothered by it. The area where I had the blood clot gives me no problem at all.