[Neofate]

Hey guys/ladies,..

I don't know what is wrong with me,.. but I'm going to find out eventually once a doctor takes things seriously.

Here's the deal:

For as long as I can remember (ie: 5-10 years) my shoulders get weak very quickly with my arms above my head.

Also VERY painful are the muscles between my thumb and index fingers and at the base (bottom) of my thumbs/hand. These muscles 'cramp' up and hurt intensely when I have to grip something for any extended period of time.

For example - I can hold an electric hedge trimmer (you know the plastic king) and 20 seconds into using it I have to stop and shake and rub these muscles. Not normal.

I just bring this symptom up to see if it's common with any of you or if that's just something else going on.

Otherwise much more recently I went to my doctor because I noticed the following:

In my right upper Chest and entire left arm (including hand) it's swollen, reddish, feels 'heavy' , has random pains , and is sensitive to pressure. IE: I can press or HIT my left upper chest or left arm and it hurts a bit due to the swelling.

Now also what really clued me into this was that I have "collateral" veins that have formed running from the upper left chest across shoulder into the bicep of left arm.

It looks nearly identical to this web photo (which is a guy with ToS.. hence why I'm here.)

It's just below the first paragraph: Thoracic Outlet Syndrome | Obgyn Key

The level of swelling, color extremity, etc is all about the same as that photo.

Now I initially thought this is probably a DVT. So went to my doctor showed him and he said he would order a Venous AND Arterial Doppler not because he thought it was anything but because he knew *I* would worry.

Well,.. I went to have those tests the next morning and no clot was found and nothing 'remarkable' was found. The test was normal/negative.

So doctor had nothing more to say about it.

But I'm unsure.


I figure, IF this is ToS.. it's venous ToS with some nerve involvement potentially?

For me the arm stays the same .. It doesn't swell up larger or go down to normal.. The only thing I can do is 'aggravate' it by doing some exercises with that arm/hand above my shoulder that sort of pumps the arm up. This causes it to feel heavier, have a redder color, veins stick out more, etc. Of course this is due to the blood building up in the area and 'slowly' being normalized back to the abnormal/normal of what it's been the last X months.



So essentially I'm wondering if any of you have had or HAVE the exact symptoms I've shown?

[Jomar]

It will save you a lot of time and dr appts if you explore our useful sticky threads up above the TOS main page..so much info to learn..
Many of us had to self educate to be able to get the best treatment for our kind of TOS..
Also search out Drs & PTs that are advanced and more interested in the whole body.
We do have a Drs & PT thread in stickies too... you can see if any are local for you..

Do NOT go to /or do any PT with a one plan works for all...
Bad PT can make you worse ..

If you have head forward/rounded or hunch shoulders.. you can work on that to open up the chest space. https://www.neurotalk.org/members/100-albums422.html