Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

[matt]

Hey everyone! How have you guys been? Well, I wanted to ask you all something. Has anyone ever heard of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. If so, can you tell me something about it. I have been having alot of burning in my left and right shoulder, mostly the left, with some tingling in my left hand pinky, and the outer part of my hand. 2 ppl have mentioned this disorder to me, so I was just wondering if anyone had ever heard of it. Thank you very much. Any information will help. Ross

[Alison]

Lol I know I was one of the people, but I thought I'd post my more thoughts here, in case it interests someone else too :-P. I'll start with my experience of it, then I'll link to the better info I've found on it.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is an absolute pain for doctors to diagnose (I found out), it's not something you seen very often, except more in sports people. My normal Doctor had gone through a Shoulder X-ray, Shoulder Cat Scan; they all came up with nothing. So she labelled me basically that it was all in my head and I was simply a hypochodriac.

Now I'm not one to overexaggerate, and I know when something's not quite right. My Physio (ahh the gorgeous and magic hands he has) had been shoving my right first rib down from under my collarbone for about 6 months now, and he wasn't convinced it wasn't nothing either.

So I went to the other 'magic hands and magnificent brain' known as a sports medicine doctor (she was the one who diagnosed I had torn ligaments in my ankle in 10 mins after 6 years of that was all in my head). My Physio gave her a provisional diagnosis (of Thoracic Outlet) and she confirmed it. Basically we've got a big 'abnormality' to cause it, rods!. Cause they keep everything in one spot, in my situation I've also got the big curves in there which don't help

Our game plan was to give me a shoulder that was above functional, pain free, and non tingly. It was 'attacked' from two areas. From a Physio's point of view, to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder, and to ensure the right bits stayed in the right spot. And also from a Massage Therapist (all three of them 'talk to each other, know each other, and trust each other which was a bonus). Which works on unkinking all the stuff in my back, releasing pressure points etc.

For the first 4 weeks, I saw my Physio and Massage therapist every week, once a week. Now I go to them for tune ups (Massage every two months, physio every three). And I can tell when they've 'shoved' everything back where it's supposed to (witin the constraints of rods of course) I get relief for about three months, and I can tell when everything has moved again.....cause i get a numby yucky arm.

Here's some of the better stuff on Thoracic Outlet

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_r...egory=Shoulder

http://www.whiplash101.com/thoracic_outlet_syndrome.htm

http://www.ctds.info/thoracic_outlet.html

Alison