Jennifer’s 12 Year Journey Through Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Daily Vomiting & Diarrhea, Difficulty Sleeping, and Depression
For more than four decades in clinical practice, I have evaluated some of the most complex cases of chronic neck pain, chronic shoulder pain, and combined chronic neck and shoulder pain.
Yet few stories demonstrate the devastating effects of postural thoracic outlet complications, misdiagnosis, and delayed proper care as powerfully as Helen’s.
She suffered with constant neck pain, escalating neurological symptoms, vascular changes, and progressive disability for 37 years.
Her case illustrates why so many patients with constant neck and shoulder pain and chronic thoracic pain fail to receive the help they desperately need.
When Helen first developed symptoms at age 30, the pain began as sharp neck pain near the collarbone. Soon, she experienced neck shoulder pain, worsening stiffness, headaches, and the characteristic neck pain and headaches cluster we see in severe thoracic outlet compromise.
Unfortunately, her providers focused only on superficial pain management rather than identifying the underlying neck pain causes.
As inflammation spread, she developed severe neck stiffness, followed by radiating neck and arm pain and eventually neck and back pain.
Over time, her symptoms expanded to include collarbone neck pain, collarbone pain near neck, and diffuse collarbone neck and shoulder pain, all hallmark indicators of mechanical compression in the thoracic outlet. She also began experiencing neck pain and dizziness, numbness, weakness, collarbone and arm pain, and progressive vascular changes.
The original constant neck pain evolved into severe neurological and circulatory dysfunction.
Her condition deteriorated into frozen shoulders, rotator-cuff tears, and muscle inhibition so severe she couldn’t lift her arms above shoulder height for nearly four decades. She described extreme heaviness, hand numbness, forearm pain, loss of grip strength, and cold extremities.
These symptoms point directly toward scar tissue entrapment, neurovascular compression, and ultimately the risk of recurrence of symptoms after surgery if the true mechanical dysfunction is not corrected.
Helen consulted countless specialists—medical doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, massage therapists—and received every conventional treatment offered for chronic neck pain, chronic shoulder pain, and related disorders.
She underwent Massage Therapy, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Treatment, Acupuncture, hydrotherapy, electrical stimulation, hot stones, pain medications, opioids, antidepressants, muscle relaxers, injections, and homeopathic remedies.
While these modalities offered temporary relief, none resolved the structural collapse underlying her symptoms.
In fact, many treatments worsened her condition by irritating already inflamed tissue or encouraging excessive stretching.
Overstretching is particularly harmful in patients with thoracic outlet collapse, as it destabilizes the shoulder capsule, worsens drooping shoulder syndrome, and increases tension in the scalenes and pectoral muscles.
With time, Helen developed full mechanical failure of the shoulder girdle, including elements consistent with Drooping shoulder syndrome and failed attempts at Droopy shoulder syndrome exercises that were not appropriate for her condition.
By the time she reached out to my clinic, Helen had been labeled with fibromyalgia and myofascial pain, yet no provider had diagnosed the true mechanical and neurological source of her suffering: a severe, longstanding thoracic outlet collapse affecting nearly every muscle from her neck to her hands.
Her symptoms were classic: neck muscle pain, vascular obstruction, chest pain around collar bone, chest pain under the collarbone, cold hands, weakness, and tingling in collarbone and fingers. She even experienced pain above collarbone, which often signifies elevation and spasm of the first rib and scalene complex.
During her three-hour examination, I palpated and graded the tension of nearly every muscle involved in stabilizing the cervical spine, thoracic outlet, rib cage, and shoulder girdle.
Helen had one of the most severe muscle-guarding patterns I have seen in 40 years—layer upon layer of hypertonicity soaked in inflammation.
The muscles were not tight because they were “short,” but because they were desperately trying to splint unstable joints and protect compressed nerves and vessels.
Once her evaluation was complete, treatment began using targeted deep tissue release and high-frequency vibration therapy.
As her inflammation was flushed out and tone normalized, the thoracic outlet opened, relieving pressure from the neurovascular structures.
Within a week, her chronic neck pain, years of neck shoulder pain, and persistent neck pain and headaches disappeared.
Her hands warmed, strength returned, and she regained full shoulder range of motion for the first time in 37 years.
Her case demonstrates that most patients with long-standing chronic neck and shoulder pain and thoracic outlet collapse do not need more stretching, more medications, or more diagnostic labels—they need precise mechanical restoration of the spring-system that stabilizes the neck and shoulder.
Today, Helen has eliminated nearly all medications, regained her life, and continues daily care using the vibration massage device we trained her to use at home. Her transformation shows what is possible when we address the true cause rather than chase symptoms.
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Dr James Stoxen DC., FSSEMM (hon) He is the president of Team Doctors®, Treatment and Training Center Chicago, one of the most recognized treatment centers in the world.
Dr Stoxen is a #1 International Bestselling Author of the book, The Human Spring Approach to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. He has lectured at more than 20 medical conferences on his Human Spring Approach to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and asked to publish his research on this approach to treating thoracic outlet syndrome in over 30 peer review medical journals.
He has been asked to submit his other research on the human spring approach to treatment, training and prevention in over 150 peer review medical journals. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Orthopedic Science and Research, Executive Editor or the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care, Chief Editor, Advances in Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Journal and editorial board for over 35 peer review medical journals.
He is a much sought-after speaker. He has given over 1000 live presentations and lectured at over 70 medical conferences to over 50,000 doctors in more than 20 countries. He has been invited to speak at over 300 medical conferences which includes invitations as the keynote speaker at over 50 medical conferences.
After his groundbreaking lecture on the Integrated Spring-Mass Model at the World Congress of Sports and Exercise Medicine he was presented with an Honorary Fellowship Award by a member of the royal family, the Sultan of Pahang, for his distinguished research and contributions to the advancement of Sports and Exercise Medicine on an International level. He was inducted into the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Personal Trainers Hall of Fame in 2012.
Dr Stoxen has a big reputation in the entertainment industry working as a doctor for over 150 tours of elite entertainers, caring for over 1000 top celebrity entertainers and their handlers. Anthony Field or the popular children’s entertainment group, The Wiggles, wrote a book, How I Got My Wiggle Back detailing his struggles with chronic pain and clinical depression he struggled with for years. Dr Stoxen is proud to be able to assist him.
Full Bio) Dr Stoxen can be reached directly at teamdoctors@aol.com
