Complete left side pain, from top to bottom.

Could be so many things. Your doctor should be able to work this out. Falling can be fatal or life impairing. I read one author’s blog who simply fell forward upon standing, broke his neck and is a quadriplegic. Your imbalance could be from something simple to something that needs medical attention. But don’t ever ignore falls.

They think will fit this next week and need to walk over walk even at home. That’s great because I walk at home but back to walk my doggy again. That walking down on my rear-end fall down, 2 years ago. Sure, I can’t run - my age is to close to 70, but walk to exercise is good for me.

I have similar but on the right side. My diagnosis are cervical radiculopathy and thoracic outlet syndrome which are resulting in fibromyalgia at times. Do you have any nerve impingement any where? I have been told, mostly from physical therapist and DOs, not MDs that impingement at the neck/trapezius can create pain all the way down to my leg and foot via perhaps fascia. I am doing trigger point injections and PT but wondering if I should try epidural injection at the nerve impingement.

My MRIs on lower spine and cervical does notes support my pain.
Hope this helps and that your condition gets resolved.
Pain is really not fun.

@snowmass Hello and I wanted to welcome you to Connect. I have the same diagnoses; a cervical spine issue that has been operated on resulting in a C5/C6 fusion and I have had thoracic outlet syndrome for years as this spine condition developed.

I have done years of physical therapy for TOS, and too much working of muscles tends to tighten my neck and shoulders and kick up pain symptoms. I don't do injections. What works well is myofascial release therapy with a John Barne's trained therapist to stretch out the tight fascia. I have had tightness that generates pain or tingling all the way from my jaw to my ankles from tight fascia. Before spine surgery, I had cervical central canal stenosis that was also generating pain all over my body and it confused a bunch of surgeons. The really smart one was at Mayo, and the Mayo surgeon removed the bones spurs and ruptured disc that was impinging on my spinal cord.

The thing that confused the surgeons was all over body pain being caused only by canal stenosis in my neck, and there was no lumbar spine pathology to cause the pain into my legs. It was all coming from my neck. If fact, the very first symptom that linked to my cervical spine was that I got a pain in my ankle when I turned my head to the side. That was when I was at a physical therapy session laying on a table, and when I turned my head forward again, the pain stopped. It was reproducible and I could turn it on and off at least in the early stages. My spine surgery solved all of that, and I do not have that pain anymore. I do still stretch fascia to deal with tightness, and tight surgical scar tissue that can link to the rest of it.

I did have an epidural injection as diagnostic when I was consulting surgeons and had a bad reaction to it, perhaps because of an allergy to a component in it. Often these injections are done to try to determine what surgery may fix. They reduce inflammation and can buy a little bit of space. That may take some pressure off a spinal nerve or the spinal cord temporarily until the steroid wears off and is cleared out by the body. In my case, the injection gave me new pain I didn't have prior and I had burning electric pains gong into my hand randomly for about 6 weeks which is the time it takes the body to clear the injected material.

You may be interested in this discussion about myofascial release.

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

Is your physical therapist doing myofascial release?

Jennifer

Thank you for sharing your detailed journey and recommendations.
My progression of these illness was initially from cervical radiculopathy dismissed as typical degeneration with order of PT. Then the TOS diagnosis after about 1-2 years later with suggestions of PT, Botox, decompression surgery by removing muscle at compression sight at the end of last year then started having pressure build up issues on my neck, chin, ear area’s accompanied by buzzing and ear pain and difficulty in staying upright for prolonged periods. An acupressure session made it even worse where afterwards started getting more neck pain and burning sensation on the back of throat and bitter taste. Now I am trying trigger point injections on my neck and traps to help with stiffness I feel all the time. I have applied to Mayo in MN for TOS and UCLA TOS specialist visit in may. I am hoping someone can take a look at it from holistic pov without judgement about fibromyalgia symptoms, just referring me to acupuncture (even neurologist referred me and it’s so hard to get neurologist appointment. )
PT does not seem to help me much and neck pain/pressure it’s gotten even harder but I will try to look up your suggestion. Thank you very much.

Btw, have your TOS been resolved? If so. How?

@snowmass I don't know if TOS is ever resolved, but it can be improved. I have done PT with myofascial release since 2010. My hands used to turn purple or bluish and get cold. That doesn't happen anymore. If I get a neck spasm on one side, it can trigger TOS a bit and even cause a contraction in the side of my palm. What really helps a lot is riding my horse just at a walk and sitting up straight while I do it. That works all the core muscles that are supporting my spine, and it is easier to hold a good posture with a stronger spine. I have to do some strength work by grooming the horse, lifting the saddle, etc, and putting the saddle away in my truck when I'm finished and carrying it back into the house.

I've learned to pay attention to when I have tight muscles and do some self treating of fascia by stretching, laying on a ball, foam roller or use something in my hand to push to stretch the skin and hold it and wait for the fascia to unwind. I do a lot at home to self treat and maintain what my therapist has done for me.

Regular PT to strengthen muscles, just makes my TOS worse, and the key to improvement is more stretching to prevent it from tightening up. I also stretch out the scar tissue from my ACDF spine surgery that is located very close to where TOS compression is in my neck.

One option for MFR work would be to do an intensive week at Therapy on the Rocks (locations in Sedona, AZ and a Pennsylvania office) which is the practice of John Barnes and his employees. I have not done it, and there is an expense, but with several therapy sessions per day for a week or more, it may make a difference in faster progress.

Therapy on the Rocks Website. https://therapyontherocks.net/

Am I understanding that you did have surgery for TOS and possibly had scalene muscles removed, and afterward this seems to be increasing your symptoms? TOS can have scar tissue involved, and surgery creates more scar tissue. When my doctor talked to me several years ago about this, he said surgery for TOS does not have a good success rate and recommended against it with MFR therapy instead. If you have surgical scar tissue exacerbating your symptoms, MFR may be beneficial.

There are a couple chiropractors at Mayo listed as doing myofascial release in their rehab center in Rochester (if you search on Mayo website). You may want to look at Therapy on the Rocks for an intensive session as an alternative. You may not need any further consulting to go there for therapy. I don't know which of your options would be more cost effective or your best choice. I was evaluated for TOS in a vascular lab at Mayo when I was there consulting for my spine surgery. They had to decide what was the bigger problem in diagnosing where my symptoms were coming from and I already had a diagnosis for TOS and cervical stenosis. My Mayo spine surgeon signed my scripts for physical therapy for my TOS for several years.

I hope you find an answer that improves things for you. It sounds like scar tissue is causing a big problem. You may also to look at the facebook page of https://www.facebook.com/kjetilMSKN He is the author of the MSKneurology.com .
Jennifer

Have you been tested for small fiber neuropathy? It affects the heart. I had a one month holter monitor test.
It showed I was having bradycardia and tachycardia ( too slow/too fast) adding to my balance and dizziness. I feel it a lot of people do not feel the arrhythmias. The cardiologist told me everything was fine. Which I knew it wasn’t it felt like my heart would stop then jump start back really weird feeling. I went to my son’s electrophysiologist and he diagnosed me with cardiac autonomic neuropathy. As going through RN school I knew what it meant. Naturally, I told him he did not know what he was talking about and walked out. My neurologist said the gold standard for testing small fiber neuropathy was a biopsy in three different places and I told him go ahead. Needless to say I had to go back and apologize never so embarrassed. He looked at me and said that’s okay that’s how a lot of people react when we tell them they only have 8 years left to live. Arrhythmias and my blood pressure goes every where. I also have gastroparesis complements of the neuropathy, bladder, occasionally my eyes act up and kidneys problems.
I constantly have balance problems and dizziness part of the neuropathy.
Dr. Anne Oaklander (Boston I was referred to her) suggested I go to Baltimore to be tested for seronegative Sojourns. My eyes constantly water been diagnosed with dry eyes and dry mouth. I have six teeth that need crowns due to dry mouth. Pretty soon my whole mouth will be nothing but crowns.

I understand that. I fell Jan 2 and 4. I became really dizzy from the neuropathy. I was looking down going down three steeps. I fell straight backwards. To me logically I should have fallen forward. Why I always fall backwards I just don’t understand but I am grateful falling forward would probably mess me up really bad. Last time I fell forward I put my arms in front of me to break the fall and broke my arms. Maybe, it’s psychological after breaking my arms.

Thank you again for sharing. I have not had a surgery for TOS yet or considered although I am considering scalene block or Botox injection to stop it contributing to body tightness from etc while addressing my cervical radiculopathy some how.
I am in Los Angeles and looked up MFR John barns and will try it soon.
Perhaps I should also apply at mayo Rochester.
I think my neuropathy is spreading to stomach now … I had a acupressure session in January and it feels like it did more damage on my neck nerves.
It’s great that you are at the point of managing it sounds like. I wonder when I will get there.
It’s getting harder to stay upright but it’s nice to be able to talk to someone with similar issues.
Thank you.