I had partial emg's from first dr. and only detected carpal tunnel. He never checked further up the arm. Full emgs include shoulder and brachial area plus put wrist and arm in other positions and can detect brachial plexus problems.

My EMG is coming up and I am wondering if I should ask for anything specific and what that would be. I know the neuro is not very experienced w/TOS and suspects I have other things. Are there specific tests that would show us both what exactly is going on? I would like the EMG to be throrough enough that I won't have to go back again. As I recall it's kind of painful.

thx for any suggestions,
fern

They must do the emg for the whole arm. This includes the brachial area and up on the shoulder. It also helps when they move the arm into other positions like straight to one side or across your chest while testing to get readings while its under stress. Definetly need to include elbow area also.

thanks billy.

i am wondering how specifically to ask for what i need.
am i asking for an EMG of the whole arm including the shoulder, the BP, and the elbow?

also i don't want to offend the doctor but want to get what i need. i know that since youve had many EMGs you might have a suggestion.

Definetly needs to do it in the shoulder/ brachial plexus area. Also across the elbow top and bottom. Mine made sure he used different positions. Arm stretched straight out and bent across the front of me while taking measurements and readings. Must do near the plexus area though. Bad EMG's I had just included the wrist and elbow. That is not good enough.

The nerve conduction study that Dr Sanders sends you for is called a medial antebrachial cutaneous or conduction something...not sure of the exact title...MAC test for short.

it went all the way up to the neck...very uncomfortable. I cried through most of it.

send me your email by PM i can send you a copy of the report if you like..you can take it with you.

Fern,

Let me know how it goes. I brought pain pill with me to take on way home from soreness.

The doctor who did mine told me the results as he did it. I loved that. I hope yours does that too.

How did EMG go? I was wondering about it.

Well I had my EMG. I was concerned about having it out of state but I'll see if it's useful to the CO doctor. I had to put up a fight to get what he wanted and the techs had to look up in a book how to do it. One said she'd been doings these for 20yrs and never heard of these particular tests for TOS. And then the doctor did the needle tests but she said she couldn't do my paraspinals as I've had prior neck surgery. Also she couldn't find my paraspinal muscles as I've been in pain for so long and haven't been able to use them. They didn't bend my arm more than a little bit and there was no other repositioning of the arm. I don't think I had any needles around my shoulder/neck area but I was working on breathing to stay calm so maybe I just don't recall.

the test may be quite different from what billy had or even jokat's order fr. Dr Sanders. I had my venogram repeated again last week and I hope that's enough to make my decisions regarding surgery.

Fern,
When do you get results? I was fortunate and they told me results while doing test. Then mailed me full report. Most of brachial/shoulder area was done with sensors not needles on my EMG.

I hope your feeling okay.