Neurologist was extremely dismissive
This is probably going to be a mess of a post, so i apologize in advance. For the past 6 weeks i have been in occupational therapy for what we thought was just general carpal tunnel. I just had my last session last week and as I was doing some of the final tests, my OT noticed some things are getting worse rather than better. Long story short, after a few more small tests, she thinks I have thoracic outlet syndrome. She sent notes to my neurologist about everything that she’s noticed and wanted me to get an EMG done. My original appointment was for June 24th but they were able to squeeze me in for today since i’ve been having more issues. I saw my neurologist today and it went the complete opposite from what i was expecting. He kept dismissing everything I was saying about my other symptoms. He didn’t even realize i was in occupational therapy, even though he’s the one that sent the referral. I could tell he didn’t look at the notes from my OT because he had no idea what i was talking about (i just want to mention that i completely understand him not knowing everything about all of his patients, since he sees a lot. it was more so like he’s never seen me before). He just wanted to talk about my tremors even though that’s not what the appointment was for.
Then towards the end of the appointment when he was finally looking at the notes, I mention that my OT thinks I might have TOS. To my surprise, he goes on to tell me that TOS isn’t even a real thing and that he’s shocked that she would even mention that. He says that no one necessarily diagnoses that anymore and hasn’t been a thing for 30+ years. He asked me how old the OT was (34) and was confused why someone so young would mention TOS. He also mentioned that a lot of Mayo Clinic Doctors have discredited TOS and something about how there’s research saying it’s not a real thing? I will admit, I am 26 years old and have personally never heard of TOS until my OT brought it up to me.
I guess my questions is, is this a common thing for neurologists to say? I’m am just desperate to figure out what’s going on with my left arm/hand. My grip strength has gone down over the past 6 weeks, so I thought I was on the right path to figure out everything that’s happening.