Hrm.

Well, I’ve had a pretty good day today—ate what I was supposed to eat, drank lots of water, got exercise—but this pain in my neck has been bothering me. I first noticed it a couple of days ago, and today it’s bothering me more.

Now, about a year ago I saw a pain specialist who theorized that I have thoracic outlet syndrome. he ordered a million billion tests (blood tests, ultrasounds, you name it) and gave me some exercises to do, and some diet/supplement recommendations which made a world of difference. So much difference, in fact, that I didn’t follow up and find out what the ultrasounds revealed.

Annyhoo, today I googled thoracic outlet syndrome again, to see if the running could somehow be causing something to go wrong, and I found this page with some exercises which might be useful. It also has a diagnostic exercise your doc might try on you, the EAST test or “hands-up” test. Basically, you hold your hands up in the air, “elbows slightly behind your head,” for 3 minutes, opening and closing your hands. So I thought I’d try it. It’s certainly tiring - anyone holding their arm up in the air is going to find it tiring, but not so bad, I thought. “Maybe it’s not TOS after all,” sez I.

Then—whoa nelly! I start to realize I can't open my left hand all the way. I have a shooting pain in the base of my thumb. It still hurts. And it’s so tired/heavy it just dangles. My right arm is fine.

So, I’m going to get back to doing the stretches and exercises which helped in the past, which I (foolishly) got lazy about doing. And add some new stretches to my arsenal. and be more careful about posture. And never forget my fish oil. And I might just go to bed with a heating pad right now.

ETA: I just found an article on PubMed describing a variant of Charcot Marie Tooth which “may be misdiagnosed as thoracid outlet syndrome.” Ack! My mother had CMT, and it’s hereditary. Time to pack up the google and go to bed!