I saw doctor Donahue and it was a great visit. I received the botox injections the following day as well. I really appreciate the doctor wants to make sure patients are truly candidates for surgery and not rush into things. While I'm waiting the 3 weeks for botox to kick in, I had two questions. During my exam, the doctor had me lift my arms parallel to the floor then fold my arms (looks like a field goal post). After 30 seconds my left arm became very numb and turned white. I forgot to ask the doctor the significance of this. Does this definitely mean there is compression?

Also during my botox with the ultrasound, the doctors in the room commented that my arteries were unusual. A doctor made two circles with his hands and said to pretend these were arteries. He said a normal anatomy would be these two arteries with nerves in between them. But they found that my nerves were routed not in between but actually routed in one of the arteries. Anyone have any comment on that?

Thanks. I will follow up with the doctor, but I am a little anxious waiting the 3 weeks.

Useful sticky threads post # 1 has this link -
http://www.nismat.org/patients/injur...in-in-the-neck


*scroll down to the images on that page and it will explain about it.


much more crash course info on TOS here -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84-5.html

Thanks Jomar.

I was wondering if any members here have what I described as the nerves inside the arteries as opposed to a normal anatomy where the nerves travel along side the outside of the arteries.

Also, just curious if anyone knew why botox injections take 2 to 4 weeks to work. Trying to understand the process.

Thanks.

You can pull up the report from your botox injections and cT scan on patient gateway.org, it sounds like yours would be an interesting one. I was told when getting botox this last time that my nerve was the largest the doctor hat did the botox had seen. Can't wait to get it over with!

Awesome thanks Eight, going to check it out.

can't use ** under the age of 18. :-(


My son is 17 and had his appointment with Dr. Donahue and his botox shots in August of this year. He is a senior in high school and is having difficulty running in track and cross country. The botox shots have alleviated the numbness, but he still has some stinging pain depending on how fast and how long he runs. His first meet is tomorrow and another on Saturday before Conference, Regionals and hopefully States. Prayers that he will be able to finish the season before he has to get more shots.

I must of misheard the doctor explain the anatomy, but after reviewing the report, it says there’s intramuscular course of the brachial plexus through the anterior scalene muscles.

This means that the some of the nerves of the brachial plexus actually pass through the scalene muscles as opposed to running along the outside of the muscles. I wonder how significant this is with TOS. There’s no doubt to me that with the nerves passing through the scalene muscles that this just makes it easier for the nerves to become compressed since they are not running freely along the outside of the scalene muscles.

Although now I’m worried because it’s been 2 weeks and 3 days and I have absolutely no improvement from botox injections yet. I was hoping I would see something by now and fear that I won’t see any improvement, which makes my case for surgery that much harder. Unfortunately, there’s no doubt my TOS symptoms are real. Just wish the botox would work and make everything easier for me.

that could just mean your compression is elsewhere, clavicle and first rib, or pec minor. tos has 4 areas of compression - primary and many have compression even at elbow and wrist.

A negative response from botox doesn't necessarily rule out successful outcome from TOS surgery. Regarding your scalenes: the new TOS book says that 80% of people with TOS have their nerves high in the scalene triangle. 40% of people w/o TOS have this. Thus, how your nerves interact with the scalenes is a major contributing factor to the development of TOS.

That's really strange, it possibly is the cause of your TOS. I've never heard anyone say this was their problem, lol, congratulations, you are special! Unfortunately, in a painful kind of way.

Sometimes, even if botox doesn't help, surgery does, sounds like that might be the case for you given your unique anatomy.

This second time I got botox it was about four weeks before I got the full effect, it wasn't the same day as the shots like before. Also, the surgery side fingers are much better than the botox only side fingers.