Hello. My name is Paul and I have been battling tos and now scapular winging for 10 yrs. I will give a more detailed intro after Friday, but I am seeing someone about getting a brace made up. I am a 4th generation Mason(Union bricklayer) and because of a football injury I tore my labrum and after that I was diagnosed TOS.. I believe it was because of how I healed post-op as I was a professional power-lifter and I now know I must of healed different thus causing tos.
At that time (22)I continued laying brick for 8 yrs. because the pain wasn't to bad. It got the point where I had to stop everything 2 yrs. ago. and the 2 yrs. prior to that I could only work 4 months a year.
This has left me in an horrific mental, physical and emotional state that I wouldn't wish upon anyone.
I have been through 4 invasive surgeries and because of the fact that I over developed pecs, I find pt/ot to be too painful now. I am currently finishing up a degree at Wentworth in Boston and it's all I can do to just take the t in and go to class and then right back home to an ice bath. mmm fun.. I don't have the type that requires a 1st rib resection. And because of all the masonry while there wasn't any blood flow they believe as do I that my primary muscles began recruiting the secondary. Causing those horrid spasms and bands to form. Now it only takes opening a car door to set them off..
The main reason I joined this is to just be able to talk with people who understand what kind of hell these syndromes can bring down on us.
FRIDAY I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT TO GET FITTED WITH A BRACE. THIS IS HUGE BECAUSE I DID HAVE A GREAT RESPONSE TO LEUkoTAPING AT SPAULDING HOSPITAL and I AM ASKING IF ANYONE CAN RECOMMEND A BRACE TO KEEP THE SHOULDER IN IT'S CORRECT ANATOMICAL POSITION AS WELL ASKEEPING MY SCAPULAR FROM MOVING WITH MY ARM. I believe that with the correct brace, I can then continue with my exercises.. With the shoulder braced correctly I am HOPING/PRAYING that I can kick start the correct muscles to fire.
So, if anyone has some info with this type of situation, can u plzz write back.
Bless all of you who have this and I pray that through research and support forums like this we can improve our quality of lives.
Sincerely,
Paul d

p.s. sorry for the caps and my erratic writing. sometimes it's difficult for me to express my thought to paper.--- another gift of TOS

Hi Paul, welcome to the group!


I hope that when you get your brace that you will not be doing any muscle-building exercises !! That would be counter-productive. As I understand it, you want to be doing light stretching only.

wishing you all the best and speedy recovery!
Anne

Paul - sorry you're here, but we're glad to have you! Your story sounds similar to mine. I was a "meat head" in college. Over-develped pecs, tore my labrum. I waited 6yrs before having surgery to repair the Labrum. I had started to notice TOS-like symptoms about 6-8 months before surgery, and they got worse after it. Best of luck with the brace.

You'll find the people here to be nice and helpful. Its also a good place to blow off steam when you have one of "those" days. The posting has slowed down lately, but I think that just happens.

like Anne said... heavy lifting is baaaaaaaad. I've found streches and (per PT) light lifting to be helpful. I had to check my ego at the door....I wasn't used to using 10lb dumbbells to work out.