Hi Everyone,

I am a 35 year old female that began having swelling inside my elbows, with burning pain and decreasing use of my hands at the beginning of this year. While I have numbness in all my fingers I am also experiencing significant pain throughout my arms. I had no instance of injury or strain. I have been diagnosed with complete ulna nerve dislocation in one elbow and cubital tunnel compression in the other. I was only diagnosed after going to doctors over 3 months and finally a rheumatologist gave me an ultra sound.

An ultrasound technician mentioned he believed I also have some sort of TOS or vertebra compression. For 20 years I have numbness in my arms and legs all at the same time, I can barely sleep at night. I see stars all the time and get very low bp, I have not been able to take a standing shower since I was 19. If I raise my arms I immediately lose feeling. I experience weird random sharp electrical shooting pains in my arms and legs all day long. I get the sensation of water running down my legs. I get major muscle spasms and spent two weeks last month with my neck totally locked up and barely able to breath. I am experiencing constant pain in my chest and clavicles. In Dec before my elbows started bothering me I started experiencing excrutiating pain in my legs while walking, it continues for 2 days after even when still. It does. To feel like muscle pain but the kind of pain you experience when a limb is waking up, except it is evenly distributed through the my legs and is a pain I can't even believe I am able to survive it is so intense.

At this point I am not sure who to see. I live in Ventura County, but am willing to drive to LA to see a specialist. I have found lots of sports medicine surgeons for injuries but I feel I have much more going on than the elbow nerves and am hoping to find someone who can look at it as a group of things going on. All of it became very bad all of a sudden, with new things like the elbows. I am not sure if I see a neurologist or an orthopedic or what. I currently have no general doc.

Have you had any in-depth testing for any other causes of this 20+ year symptoms?

Extra cervical ribs?
Hypermobile?
http://hypermobility.org/help-advice...eighton-score/
large transverse processes?
Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS)?
http://www.ednf.org/what-eds

One of our members made this site based from CA,
http://tossociety.org/certifiedTOSSmemberlist.html

I have never had any testing done before, when I see any doc they always write me off as having something mysterious and being one of those people, without doing any tests at all. As a child I was told I had growing pains and was just more sensitive to my body than other people. As an adult I am just told have fibro. I have seen many docs over the years for the tingling, shooting stars, faint feeling, burning pain, muscle spasm, and other things, no one ever did testing before. I have not worked since 2008. Just getting the imaging on my elbow took 3 months and it was swollen the size of a golf ball, no doc had any interest. The last time I tried to go to a doctor specifically for joint pain was in 2005ish with swollen knees that were stuck in a bent position (this had been happening since 1993 in HS, in fact I dropped out of 9th grade because I could not handle the stairs at the school). I was told I just had womanly aches and that I needed to read the Bible. This Doctor was a former Orthapedic surgeon for the Redskins. After that I started having a hard time holding down jobs because of joint locking and pain and loose feelings, I crack all over constantly but don't get swelling very often.

I have done alright maintaining my own health until this past year when things just kind of snowballed and I started having new symptoms and existing ones became worse. At first I did not realize the new problems could be relate to an over all situation or even past issues. I am pretty fed up, I don't know what these people are paid for.

I would start with looking for a knowledgeable doctor. You might hav eto call offices and ask questions or email if they have that set up. or stop in and chat..PT clinics can be good resources too for finding good Drs. They should know who is up on things & may have more time to chat if they aren't busy.. You may find out better info at PT places... While most drs office staff will talk up the dr I'm sure..

Maybe -
physiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain medicine. These spine specialists focus on the body's musculoskeletal system, which includes bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves.

or DO
[Osteopathic medicine provides all of the benefits of modern medicine including prescription drugs, surgery, and the use of technology to diagnose disease and evaluate injury. It also offers the added benefit of hands-on diagnosis and treatment through a system of therapy known as osteopathic manipulative medicine. ]
http://www.aacom.org/become-a-doctor/about-om

[DOs receive special training in the musculoskeletal system, your body's interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones. By combining this knowledge with the latest advances in medical technology, they offer patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.]
http://www.osteopathic.org/osteopath...s/default.aspx

I'm surprised no MRI was done at all yet.. just to check for any visual causes that might show up.. that is usually one of the first things, to rule out possible spine/bones causes..

I would definatley see a neurologist. I live in Socal and I would recommend Dr Sheldon Jordan in Santa Monica to diagnose you-He is expensive though and out of network with insurance. He is a neurologist and TOS specialist. Once you get diagnosed correctly then you can do PT,Chiro,Injections or Surgery and there are many people here in Socal that can help. But first you need the correct diagnosis. Good Luck! There is also Dr. Williams at Kerlan Jobe who can diagnose TOS and takes insurance but can't really recommend him. Only if you can't afford Dr. J.
You probably need an EMG to rule out Ulnar or carpel tunnel which is much easier to treat. Ask the neurologist for an EMG . Good Luck!