Plumbing the Pits of Despair with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
One patient's story
Author: Betty Kovacs, MS, RD
Medical Editor: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
It took three years and three months, three MRI's, two x-rays, two EMG's, and nine health-care professionals for me to feel better. It was a journey that felt like forever with exhausting highs and lows. Each new doctor's appointment was entered into with hope and walked out of in despair. Those who were unable to diagnose my condition were able to make me think that it was all in my head. Fortunately, or unfortunately, my symptoms progressed and out of desperation I gave one last doctor a chance. That last chance saved my sanity and gave me back my life.
My symptoms started off somewhat vague. I had taken on a new position at work that required a lot of time on the computer. I began having pain on my right side in my neck and shoulder with tingling in my hand at the end of the day. I felt a lump on my cervical spine that I assumed to be the cause of the symptoms. I went to an orthopedic surgeon who sent me for an MRI to rule out a tumor. I was assured that he had never seen a tumor in that area, but that did not ease the heart-wrenching fear of a possible tumor. I soon learned that I did not have a tumor and that I was too claustrophobic to ever get back in an MRI machine. I was so relieved that I decided to wait and see if the symptoms went away on their own.
For the next year, I got massages and stopped lifting weights to help with my pain. My outer three fingers on my hand had begun getting cold at the end of the day. As time went on, they would get cold after a few hours. I couldn't tell if the shoulder pain was causing the hand pain or vice versa. I went to a leading hand surgeon to figure out what was going on. The diagnosis was discomforting. I was told that this was simply a case of poor posture and that physical therapy (PT) would correct it. I have been tall my entire life, so my posture is a sensitive area. At 32 years of age, I did not expect to ever hear that I have to sit up straight again.
After much hesitation, I went to see a physical therapist that a friend had recommended. We explained my situation and asked if he could figure out the cause of my symptoms. He examined me and walked in with a book that showed an image of something called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS). It was the first time that I felt that sense of relief that you get when something finally makes sense. I tried PT for
three months and did not get relief from my symptoms. My physical therapist and I decided that I needed medical assistance with this.
I went to a physiatrist who took a chest x-ray and told me that I had a cervical rib, which is a very common cause of TOS. He gave me valium for the spasms in my shoulder and chest (by my armpit) and recommended that I increase PT to twice a week. I did so for two more months until one day my three fingers went cold doing an exercise that I had done for the past five months without any problem. My physical therapist was at a loss for what to do, so I was back to square one.
Three months later, I went to another physiatrist who came highly recommended. I mentioned TOS, but the doctor did not seem to believe that my symptoms were being caused by that. Instead I was sent back into the dreaded MRI machine to rule out a tumor in my chest. Again, no tumor was found and I was left without an answer.
Meanwhile, my fingers were now going cold without any identifiable trigger. My neck, shoulder, and chest were in constant pain. I went back to my original orthopedic surgeon three months later. Once again, I was told that TOS was a possibility, but unlikely, according to him. I was told that I would have to go to Boston (I live in New York) for an official diagnosis of TOS, but his recommendation was that taking three months off of work would get rid of my symptoms. Work was busier than ever and I didn't believe that it would actually work, so I never took the three months off.
