Happy,

I am guessing that you must have read my post. Great!

And I sure hope that by ending your post Cob were signing your name and not inferring "close of business" meaning the topic is closed. Because that would be very narrow minded and imposing.

This is a forum which by definition means...A public meeting place for open discussion or voicing of ideas.

And thats what I was doing in my post about my thyroid condition.

I respect your opinion but its just that....your opinion and that of your TOP endo (ooooooooo impressive) at a medical college.

I was posting both my opinion and information about my personal experience which I made very clear was mine.

If you read the post you would have read....Please know that this post applies to my situation and in no way am I suggesting that anyone's situation is similar nor should they do what I did.

So if you would like to discuss the topic lets please do it in the spirit of sharing and learning and not impose your rule of thought as the only one.

And in no way was I saying that thyroid causes TOS. Because if that was the case logic would stand to reason I would be cured once my thyroid was taken out.

But I am not cured of TOS. Nope its still there and confirmed.

And if you read my post carefully I was not referring to just hypothyroidism but rather a not so common complication of Hashimotos thyroiditis that I personally had called Hashistoxicosis or Thyrotoxicosis.

Its not easy to diagnose at all because most blood tests for thryoid come back normal. Mine did all the time. BUt the key was how progressively worse I got when treated with thyroid meds.

So I was posting information about that condition which both my TOP endo and surgeon (chief of head and neck surgery at a TOP teaching UNIVERSITY - actually #1 in the west according to US news and World Report - now aren't you impressed) both agree that I had.

And this condition atleast for me (notice caveat) did make my TOS worse because it affected my muscles in the shoulder region which the literature I posted explained. And the goiter which was 3x its normal size was putting pressure on structures in my neck.

My purpose in posting was to let folks with Hashi's and TOS (because many of us have both) know that if they had Hashi's and their msucles are weak or they cant tolerate the meds that they may want to ask their docs about it given how severly it can affect your msucles.

So again the Thyroid does NOT cause TOS but in my case the goiter and the Hashistoxicosis was making my TOS worse. Two separate body systems, but in my case they existed separately and one did make the other worse.

And for me (again caveat) taking my thyroid out was my personal choice on how to treat my specific problem which was more than "just hypothyroidism".

And I can say in my case it has made a world of difference. The pain and muscle spasms are way down. THe twitching is non existant. My emotions of extremes have leveled off. The feeling of dying and dread is gone. My muscle mass and strength increase every day. The IBS is pretty much gone. The fast reflexes are slowing down. The pre diabetes is getting better and my glucose and insulin are returning to more normal levels. Heart palpitations down and I am off beta blockers. Actually I am off all meds except the occasional ultram for pain. I can sleep and think and live again.

I still have TOS and will continue to manage that but the thyroid surgery has definitely for me made it more manageable. And looking back maybe the thyroid was the worse of the two separate problems.

Maybe in the beginning of your post you should have said Shelley I am happy that you found some relief, good for you for continuing to search for a solution to your problems. Yeah that would have been nice.

So yes...I agree the thyroid does NOT cause TOS. But it sure can negatively affect it if you have a very bad one.

I will point you however to a TOP endo in Houston, Dr Rihda Arem that writes in his book The Thryoid Solution that he has seen a connection between neck injuries and thyroid problems. So I guess TOP endos can have differing opinions.

So we can agree to disagree and continue to help people with our personal experiences.

All the best Happy!

Charles Otto Brantigan. See the reference. This poster is "quoting" Dr. Brantigan.

Hope this helps...

Thanks for sharing Shelley, This topic has long been a misinturpeted one. Several of us over the years have had the problems with the stangulation from a neck injury inciting the thyroid symptoms thus falring the TOS symptoms.

Same ol' same ol' from the same ol'
We either are on the train or not.....
Quote:
"So many times this comes up. There is absolutely no connection between the two. No way no how."

TOS has far too many variables to say for certain....and one doctor from another do not agree, how can we?

I am so very happy you have found relief.
It was really miserable there for you and broke my heart that you could not find relief. Although it meant another surgery. It seems worth it for you.

It also encourages me to follow up with my situation also..
Oh, and the delayed mamagram, and the almost three year put off of the you know what test, you know where!

Keep gettng better...
Dianne

PS TOS is affecting my eyesight too!

I am very wary of new posters who appear out of nowhere, with no explanation, no introduction, and who just post a BIG conclusion disagreeing with a supposed conclusion by the Board - which in fact we all agree to disagree. Everyone here gets that, and we have a good time with it...we (I) enjoy hearing all of the different opinions, but usually recognize the posters as valid, active members of this community.

My concern is that "Happy" has no prior or subsequent post than this one...so I do not get personally in an uproar over it, and hope no one here does either. Like Di said, this is a recurring theme.




I wish everyone a great day, including HappyHappyHappy, especially since I have been SadSadSad since 2002 when I came down with TOS from my computer!

Hi guys,
this seems to be a very important topic for us!

I would like to remind you that thoracic outlet ends with syndrome......
and a syndrome is defined as ..................
from Wikipedia.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndrome

In medicine and psychology, the term syndrome refers to the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs (discovered by a physician), symptoms (reported by the patient), phenomena or characteristics which often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others. In recent decades the term has been used outside of medicine to refer to a combination of phenomena seen in association.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/...rticlekey=5613


http://www.answers.com/topic/syndrome?cat=health

just a thought to consider.....we all experience things in our own way and I pretty much guarantee that some of us will have similar symptoms and others totally different ones that characterize the basis of our SYNDROME.

In saying that there may be a symptom of tos that nobody has seen before and one of us has it. It does not mean it is not part of the syndrome........

The whole point of this is that due to how nerves and vessels grow in our own vessel (so to speak-- our body) and the nature of HOW we got our tos we will all have different symptoms....hence the word SYNDROME.

I lifted a patient up from a toilet and got my tos (both vascular and neurological likely due to a brachial plexus stretch and possibly tear), others have only vascular, others have only neurological, others get RSD, so we are all similar but rarely the same. We each have different pain levels, we each have different symptoms that usually take the many many physicians we seek help from a long time to put together our SYMPTOMS TO DISCOVER OUR SYNDROME.

ok off my soapbox.

oh sorry back on soapbox.......
and how can one person definitively say that Hashimotos is not related to a SYNDROME. Doctors PRACTICE medicine they do not know all and asking three doctors who are not all of the same specialty does NOT qualify as a sufficient survey in my clinical mind......

Yes other problems we have will interact with our syndrome. I think that MY depression is related to my five years of chronic pain so part of MY syndrome.......and if you have hashimotos it will add to your SYNDROME.


I do respect all opinions!!

I accept all and help all no matter who or what we are or suffer from.

Thanks to all......may we all deal with our own symptoms of this syndrome in the best way possible!

love and hugs to all,
Victoria

I couldn't have said it better myself Victoria!!!