| Last Updated April 11, 2005 |
My TOS :
This all began with my chest hurting. I would get tremendous chest pain. One evening after a movie with my boyfriend (where I was leaning against him on my left side) I had full symptoms of a heart attack. I was dizzy, nauseous, had a sharp pain in my chest and left arm, and I was sweaty. My parents took me to the ER and they found I have an irregular heart beat. I had just about every cardiac test done to me because my family has trouble with cardiac issues. Nothing was found for 6 months worth of testing. I thought I was going crazy!!!! I had an intense chest pain just about every day, my arm would go numb, blueish and cold, and no one could figure out why. My Doctor was great though. Appearently he researched what I could have nearly everyday for 3 months while I was away at school in Washington and figured it was probably TOS. I went to Dr. Doucet and he confirmed that I had TOS. He did a simple examination. He took my pulse in my left wrist and the brought my arm back behind my head as if I was carrying a tray. My pulse went away. He told me that it was probably brought on by a combination of things: I was a basketball player with asthma and I was a busser who carried trays with my left hand. He said that my muscle was over developed because of asthma (Asthma sufferers have to have more shoulder muscles in order to breathe deeper) and then I worsened it with the repetative motions in basketball. Carrying trays jst aggrevates it. They did an ultra sound on my shoulder and I have eclusions in two places, meaning I will probably have to have surgury eventually. However, I've been on asprin therapy for almost a year, and I take 3 inhalers so I don't have trouble breathing....and it works most of the time. I have pain still, but I can live pretty comfortably most of the time. I hope that this can help someone else out there!
Jaime Doucet Longmont CO Benigno Decena III Boulder CO