Fern,

I would recommend trying to find a doctor who is very knowledgeable both about TOS and all other arm problems, both nerve and ligament/joint related (I think tennis elbow is more of a ligament type injury than a nerve injury).

If you're within traveling distance of southeastern PA, I'd highly recommend Dr. Scott Fried (610-277-1990) , who is an orthopedic hand surgeon who has additional training in surgery and treatment of TOS. He believes in looking at the patient as a whole, diagnosing and treating all problems in the entire upper extremity (neck through fingertips) using both traditional and alternative treatments, with surgery as a last resort.

Dr. Fried's online résumé:

nervepain.com/drFriedDetailed.html

Many of his patients have more than one type of injury.

Also, the EMGs done at Dr. Fried's office are done by experts in performing EMGs to check for TOS and other upper body nerve problems. Mine have been done by Rick Reed, who DiMarie has mentioned in past threads like this one:

neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=14165&highlight=Rick+Reed


If not, you could check to see if other TOSers in your area have had any good experience with orthopedic, sports medicine, or physiatrist type doctors who also have enough knowledge of TOS to sort out and treat the cause or causes of your elbow pain.

Regards,

ThreeForOne

Fern,
I also have that exact same type pain around my elbow area. I cannot pick up anything that requires a fist type movement of either hand. I have to be very careful about grasping anything.
I have several tests, EMG etc. and my thoracic surgeon has confirmed that this is part of the double crush injury that is part of my TOS. There was some suggestion that a ulnar nerve transposition might help, but I am uncertain that that is the answer for me right now.
I am still trying to find a way to deal with the pain that it causes, but hopefully I will find something soon.

Thanks all. I've been reading about tendonosis at http://tendinosis.org/ which I saw at sorehand. I think that I probably have tendonosis in many body sites (not all upper body) as well as the dx bilateral TOS and previous dx of various tendonitus sites which either didn't heal or returned. So I've been thinking that it would be good to get that evaluated. What do you think the relationship is between tendonitus/tendonosis and TOS? I can see that hypermobility could be related to tendonosis and bodywide RSIs but I haven't ever understood if tendon injuries are precursors to TOS.

"Therefore, tendinosis is a slow accumulation of little injuries that are not repaired properly and leave the tendon vulnerable to yet more injury. This failed healing process is the reason many people with tendinosis don't completely heal from it and can't go back to their previous level of activity. Once the tendinosis cycle starts, the tendon rarely heals back to its pre-injury state."

The first symptoms I had of TOS worsening was severe elbow pain when grasping. Now its occuring in other arm(elbow pain) shows its worsening there.

Hi All,

I have noticed in the past few months that my right elbow is also sore. It seems to flare up when i do some lifting of groceries etc. The flare lasts a few days then seems to go away appearing again when arm is used for lifting etc. I just thought it may be overuse??? I have TOS more promient in left hand side, so I just presumed this was from overuse of my right arm. My dr tends to agree and thinks its inflammation from overuse.

Ozzy

Hi Fern! Glad to see you around again. I have tenderness or soreness on that exact same part of my elbow - kind of weird, since I have vascular TOS. Is your circulation in your arm okay?

I second Dr. Fried. He spends time with every patient and will fight for you. Cares about your future. Also teaches wonderful self-hypnosis classes.