Team Doctors Chiropractic Treatment Center

Dr. Stoxen is a beast. The 5 star ratings he has are all well-deserved. Thank you for treating me for TOS, pitting edema, compartment syndrome, etc, and for lifting alot of my brain fog and all the information you give me. I will always be thankful.

In 2021, a close family member, developed not only pain and numbness in their arm, a choking feeling in their neck, but also their entire hand would “ blow up” like a balloon or boxing glove when at rest. After much research and scans, we discovered this to be a case of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. With emergency treatment by Dr Stoxen, followed by long term exercise and lifestyle changes, the compression was relieved, increased strength and posture was achieved to ensure long term health. Highly recommend!

In December 2020, I suffered a blood clot in my subclavian vein after a workout. The doctors dissolved the clot then recommended to me and my family I have my first rib and scalenes surgically removed to prevent another clot. The cause of the clot was thoracic outlet syndrome. After this, my father did some research into TOS where he found and read Dr Stoxen’s book, The Human Spring Approach to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. He contacted Dr Stoxen by phone where Dr Stoxen said that the doctors that were treating me with the blood thinners had no way to gauge if my thoracic outlet was open as to when to come off the blood thinners. Also, the physiotherapists did not have a good game plan to open the outlet. We agreed but with Covid it wasn’t safe for me to go to Chicago and the US government banned travel to the US. So, I had a purple/white swollen arm for 10 months. I was told not to do any exercise of any kind and I should refrain from lifting my arms over my head. I was scared I could get another clot at any moment. I went to the top doctors on Harley Street in Marylebone, central London, which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. Doctors did an MRI where I had my arm over my head while I opened and closed my hand. This is when my arm went purple and white. The doctors said I needed a first rib resection. Dr Stoxen told my dad on the phone that the shoulder is the roof of the tunnel and the first rib was the floor of the tunnel. If I am lifting the shoulder up then I am lifting the roof off the tunnel and first rib. Dr Stoxen said this is cause when the pectoralis minor, coracobrachialis and biceps short head is stretched across the tunnel causing the narrowing and the symptoms and obviously not the first rib elevation. That made sense and when we finally met with him in October, he was 100% right. In October 2021 Dr Stoxen contacted my father to let him know he would be in London treating another TOS patient so we arranged to meet with him and get his treatment, When Dr Stoxen pushed his thumb into my scalene muscles, they were not painful. When he checked my first rib motion and position the first rib was not elevated and moving fine. When he checked the biceps short head, coracobrachialis and pec minor there was a severe painful muscle contraction in these muscles causing the compression in the costoclavicular space, and retropectoralis minor space and not from an elevated first rib and scalene tension. I would still have the purple ice-cold arm and pain after the surgery. Dr Stoxen carefully evaluated me for all potential areas of compression where he found a muscle spasm choking off the blood to my hand. After 5 days all the pain with the pressure points to my muscles was gone, the outlet was open, the normal colour came back to my arm, the arm and hand were warm again and the swelling in the arm was finally gone. The next morning, we met in the gym of the hotel where he taught me the proper form and technique for the exercises of the muscles that would open my thoracic outlet and strengthen it. If you have thoracic outlet syndrome and are considering first rib and scalene resection remember this is a life experience that can go either way. You cannot put the muscles and ribs back in when you find out the compression is somewhere else. I would highly recommend you call Dr Stoxen and get a second opinion.

Dr. Stoxen has helped me tremendously, because of him I am now lifting weights 3x a week and on the path to living a pain free life. I have had MRIs, X-Rays and an EMG all coming back negative and seen several doctors offering various diagnoses that ended up being dead ends in terms of treatment. I have been in pain for 2 1/2 years with months and months of PT with little improvement. I found Dr. Stoxen’s book on TOS and called him to come out to help me because the idea of the human body and it’s individual muscles working as an integrated spring system and the unique approach to restoring this spring system to relieve chronic pain made a lot of sense and sounded really promising. He came out to treat me and diagnosed me with mild TOS on the right side as well as severe Forearm Compartment Syndrome, which usually requires surgery to cut open the arms and drain out the fluid. The TOS was mild and only on one side so he got through that in about a day and half of deep tissue and vibration massage. We then started on the forearms and when he first used his vibration massager on my forearms, they swelled up with fluid and when pressed down left large pits (pitting edema). He continued to push out the fluid daily with the massager as well as do hours upon hours of deep tissue to release the muscle spasms in my forearms. This work was grueling and very taxing on Dr. Stoxen but he was determined to release the spasms. The alternative to this treatment could have meant surgery, which I was determined to avoid as it would leave a lot of scarring and may not have resolved my issues entirely. I cannot express how grateful I am for how many extra hours he put in to make sure to get my arms functional again. The work was very taxing on his arms and he still worked overtime 12-14 hours every day and even gave me an extra free day because he was so committed to getting me better before he left. On top of the compartment syndrome, I also had cold, pale hands with little blood flow - He had never seen this before yet was determined to fix this issue as well. The forearm work wasn’t working on my cold hands so he had the idea to try some deep tissue directly on my wrist and palms, that along with holding my hands on the massager for extended periods of time finally cleared up the blockage and the blood flowed back into my hands, they swelled up and tingled - and are now warm and their color returned to normal. It turns out I had compression in the Tunnel of Guyon and that was that cause of my hand symptoms - none of my doctors previously had noticed this. On the last few days he showed me the proper form and technique for the weight lifting exercises I now do 3x a week and I haven’t missed a workout. I also use the massager and I am getting better daily. I am very grateful for Dr. Stoxen coming out to treat me and putting in the time and extra effort, without him I don’t believe I would have been able to get to this point - he has helped me more than any doctor or physical therapist I have seen. He put in all the initial work that I needed and wasn’t able to do on my own to allow me to continue to work on myself and get on the path to be pain free and feeling like myself again. It’s been about 2 months and a few of my pains still come and go so I’m not entirely out of the woods yet but I can see myself getting back to 100% soon, I am getting my life back day by day and for that I am very grateful to Dr. Stoxen.