I thought we should make a list of as many relative factors or causes of acquiring TOS.


Prior Whiplash, Motor Vehicle Accident
*Upper body Injuries*
Falls, Hits,
Sports Injury
Repetitive Strain Injuries
Head /Shoulders - forward, hunched, jutting postures
Prior Collarbone Injuries
Tilted body alignment - Head/shoulders/hips uneven
Intense/long hours @ static desk work, computers

Believe it or not my TOS was aquired from crocheting. Several years ago I decided to crochet afghans for several family members. My family loved them, but I am still paying for it now!

I think set me up from the beginning. I'm small framed and constant poor posture and a relatively sedentary lifestyle didn't help me at all.

Of course years as a bedside nurse and 6.5 yrs of computer work didn't help.

And this goes along with poor posture but I always held any tension in my shoulders therefore probably setting up that whole scalene muscle thing.

Positioned wrong during a surgical procedure

* suffered a brachial plexus stretch injury that evolved into bilateral severe neurogenic and vascular tos

well, since mine is a case of true neurogenic TOS it's difficult to say. as some of you know, it hit me while i was still in college and i had a decades-long "gap" between onset and dx, but when i presented several possibilities to dr. ahn 28 years after onset of sx (difficult pregnancy, carrying toddler around, faux pas in jazz dance class, poring over text books or lugging around same), he suspected my pregnancy more than anything else as the trigger for the severe sx (the "cause" being underlying congenital anatomical anomalies major enough to not only have kept me in high pain for most of my adult life but to have caused gilliat-sumner hand; the hand atrophy had been clearly noticeable since the mid-1980's).

i remember reading in the medical literature after that first or second encounter with the great sam ahn, that pregnancy can be enough of an insult to the body to set off the TOS beast in some women (well, if it set off TOS in any men, i suppose you'd really have something to write about!). so hmmm. seems to me then, sam was playing it safe by saying that to me... the old tried and true, as it were. didn't want to hurt himself breaking new ground or anything... nor move too swift nor talk too wise, in my case anyhow. god forbid these guys should tailor-make their approach to any one of us TOS'ers. does anyone else find that infuriating? fortunately, i had forewarned my lovely daughter, chelsea, that he might say that, as she was with me on that visit.

we're neither catholic nor jewish, but we WASP's can do guilt just as well as anyone else; she was horrified to think that she was the cause of her mommy's great anguish and this young woman has born witness to it, let me tell you guys. chels does not remember a day when her mom was NOT in pain. TOS has stolen so much from her! it makes me so angry. she could have had brothers and sisters, for starters... i love babies; i love children - but if i couldn't even pick her up anymore, how was i going to have more? i never did. OK, sorry, i'm getting off topic here. anyway, of course after getting out of ahn's office i immediately put my TOS arms around her and told her i would go through it all over again, 100 times if necessary, just to have one day with her. i love her so much! and of course it goes without saying that none of this is her fault. i am back to my idea of a charm school for TOS surgeons now...

but i have my own theory on TOS etiology as well, iconoclast that i am.

ready, kidz? OK, here it is: sins of a past life.


yes, i'll go with that.

makes about as much sense to me as anything else.

go ahead and make fun of me, you guys...

alison

P.S. there've been lots of fender-benders (i live in LA), an elevator accident, and a high-stress job between then and now in which i'm sure i reinjured myself on a daily basis between heavy computer use and almost nonstop telephone nonsense. all nails in the coffin, my friends, nails in the coffin of my TOS ****. but for purposes of answering the question i tried to limit myself to the very onset of my TOS, which was waaaaay back in the '70's before most of you were even born probably! shut up! leave this old woman alone. and why can't you access emoticons on an edit, what's up with that i wonder? these are the questions i ponder, folks...

yoga

crow pose-balancing all your weight on your hands and tucking your knees onto your elbows in the air

also did a lot of computer work and not very good posture

Dentnal Hygiene.
Static posture for hours at a time sitting with my held tilted to the right
holding my elbows up and out for hours to hold the dental mirror and instruments, reaching for the overhead light and Cheap dentist who don't want to invest in their practice to get updated equipment. Unforgiving patients who can't seem to recline in the chair all the way but yet they lay down to go to sleep at night..go figure. I started rescheduling them with someone else if they wouldn't compromise. With the exception of elderly, pregnant, gastric and physicallyinjured or handicapped of course but it took me after the 4th and 5th surgery to figure that out.

Mine would be caused from congenitail cervical ribs. Born with it and live with it as painful as it has been.

Phoebe,
How is this possible?

" and a relatively sedentary lifestyle didn't help me at all."

You may have had a sedentary lifestyle at home because you worked your %^&* off at work as a bedside nurse.

Nurse and sedentary lifestyle in my opinion is not possible!

anything that will cause scapular instability, e.g. wry neck + holding arms infront of body for long periods (musician, typist, hairdresser, awning installer) + changed breathing (pregnant, reaction to medication, putting on weight causing pressure on diaphragm) + work hardening program, truncal strenghening program+laying on back for extended periods.
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if the person gets a wry neck and doesnt have an exacerbating factor they are likely to recover. if there is an exacerbating factor that doesnt allow the scapular instability to resolve, it is a slippery slope into the abyss. regards towelhorse