[dawn3063]

http://www.examiner.com/a-735891~Bla...emove_Rib.html

Blalock to Have Surgery to Remove Rib

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Texas Rangers third baseman Hank Blalock (9) tags out Los Angeles Angels' Tommy Murphy after Murphy was caught in a run down trying to score from third base on a double by teammate Chone Figgins in the third inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 14, 2007, in Arlington, Texas. Los Angeles won 7-2. HOUSTON (Map, News) - Texas Rangers third baseman Hank Blalock, who has had shoulder discomfort in recent days, will have surgery to remove a rib Monday and could be out up to three months.

Blalock missed Thursday's game against Tampa Bay, but the Rangers thought he would be available for their first interleague series this weekend against Houston.

Instead, team officials said Friday he had been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which affects the nerves that pass through the shoulder into the neck. The surgery will remove a rib on the right side of his upper chest.

The two-time All-Star was hitting .285 with five home runs and 16 RBIs.

The Rangers didn't immediately announce a roster move.

Save and follow updates to this story in My News. No registration required.

[Jomar]

another article with rib jokes-
http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05...-with-his-rib/

I couldn't find any simple contact info for him I was going to send him our link for the forum here.

Maybe our TX Tossers can find his email or the team email?
just a thought...

[dabbo]

I like "auction it off on eBay" the best. I think they frown on organs/body parts being auctioned off tho.

[fareastY]

Originally Posted by jo55

I couldn't find any simple contact info for him I was going to send him our link for the forum here.

I found the e-mail address below on the official site of the Rangers.
Does this work ?

"...Beginning today, fans can also e-mail their get well wishes for Hank to community@texasrangers.com."

Yasuko

[Jomar]

thanks - I sent him a get well message and the forum link.

I'm sure the emails are sorted thru before they get to him personally- so if anyone else wants to send to him go for it.

[anonymous_no_more]

this is actually more common than advertised, especially in sports where there is both contact and repetitive arm/shoulder movement (ball throwing/pitching).

Over time, with enough repetition (that's how athletes improve their skills) and perhaps a few collisions turning a double, or breaking up a double (sliding into the thrower), cummulative injuries, combined with one last "trigger" can lead to a very obvious BP condition.

Ahn has also helped baseball players, and Filler has helped other athletes as well, with what one might think would be considered "traumatic" brachial plexopathies. Many of these high-profile BP docs have helped many high profile athletes, as well as the average college/HS athlete (ball players, football, swimmers, etc).

They [the athletes] obviously are not "questioned" when reporting their symptoms, and the belief of their complaints, quick diagnostics/dx, and appropriate treatment more than likely accounts for their return to sports (although, not always at the same level) and their lives.

They do not get the TOS "stigma" that the rest of us "ordinary" people get, and have, I would assume, plenty of cash to get the best docs, and the finest post-surgical rehab, as long as it takes to get them back in action.

It does seem interesting that so many high-profile athletes/human beings seem to avoid the TOS stigma, and get dx/treatment, without the TOS runaround that many of us "ordinary" people get.

The athlete this thread is about, presented with "shoulder discomfort" and somehow docs figured out that this "discomfort" required immediate BP intervention? How does that work? What are we missing? ....

[anonymous_no_more]

BTW, I would like to thank johannakat for sharing her BP/TOS diagnostic journey. I hope that she is able to get some relief from her symptoms, and that her surgeon treats her like he would any other patient, so that she can hold on to some form of "quality" in her life, so that her family, kids, etc. don't have to watch her suffer long-term (yes, I know BP compressions don't kill).

Lastly, for all those that are new to this "journey", the "moral" of JK's BP journey, is that all of these docs have a "comfort zone" as to how they diagnose BP injury/damage. If one doctor suggests that you don't have anything wrong with you, because they can't find it, doesn't mean that that journey for the truth should end. We are all not crazy, hysterical, malingering, weenies.

The brachial plexus, especially the lower trunk (C8/T1) is not easy to image. This does not mean that nothing can ever go wrong there, no matter how "rare" someone says any BP compression is.

The point is, that in other compressions, and their workup/diagnostics, there is more standardization to ruling in/out problems. The spine is one example. Spinal diagnostics are pretty much "accepted" [now] by the average doctor for correlating patient symptoms to pathology on studies. Most spinal patients, who have real symptmatic pathology, can find consensus about the diagnosis, because of this "standardization" of workup. While we may see a "divergence" in thought as what to do next, acceptance of the diagnosis helps get the patient to some form of appropriate treatment, sooner, rather than later.

At one time, spinal problems and their workups were discouraged unless you had been obviously paralyzed in an accident [generally speaking]. With the advent of more accurate, less invasive imaging technology [MRI] more people who were suffering from spinal problems that could be corrected/improved, surgical or otherwise, got a chance.

Their spinal problems had existed in the absence of adequate imaging technology, and pretending they didn't exist, because they could not be easily identified, didn't change the course of their suffering/progression. I am thinking of some cliche (tree falling in a forest). BP imaging/diagnostics seems to be following this pattern.

Doctors are also in business to make money, and making money in medicine isn't easy anymore. If you are complicated, have overlapping, "symptomatic" conditions (ie, BP/CSpine), or have a long-standing injury, with a low likelihood of symptom reversal (cure), they may not want you messing up their "success" statistics, and point you in another direction.

Does that mean that you don't have a real problem? Of course not, it means that you need to keep looking for the doctor/diagnostician that can/will help get to the truth, whatever that truth may be, without bias towards gender, lifestyle, and/or profession.

"Appropriate diagnosis/treatment" depends on the location/type of BP injury (uppper, middle, lower plexus; vascular, veinous, nerve, and/or neurovascular entrapments). No one BP/TOS patient is the same.

I am always surprised at the resistance to understand that a BP compression, can present so uniquely in any patient, depending on the sum of their lives, from residual/cummulative trauma (acceleration/deccelaration accidents), sports, recreational activity/hobby, profession, to that "last straw" that set off full blown BP symptoms/nerve dysfunction.

Hopefully, one day, there will be less emotion, and more science/standardization to diagnosing BP compression(s), and that we won't have to wait until we have reached that "point of no return", to get a "slam-dunk" diagnosis from the medical community.

I am talking about those "leaps of faith" where we "kinda" know what is going on (MRN, MRI/MRA UCLA), but won't know until we get in there.

This is the very problem with lack of BP dx standardization. One can be "abnormal", but not know what that means, depending on available diagnostics, and who had done them, and how they correlate to the patient symptoms (motor, sensory nerve dysfunction, atrophy/muscle wasting, vascular/veinous sx's, or all of the above).

One can have spent a boatload on the UCLA study, only to have it go ignored when seeking another opinion [from either an ordinary doc, or TOS specialist], and then be asked to spend more [time, money] getting the "diagnostic" that the next specialist has a "comfort level" or financial interest in.

With enough time, we may then have to make hard choices due to our own financial limitations [cost/benefit ratio], and TOS specialists may also hold that against us, since "it couldn't be so bad" if we wont bankrupt our family in search of a solution. Not an easy road.

I couldn't afford Filler especially since he would not "cap" his fees (am self-employed). I could go in thinking I would have a five hour surgery, and come out eight hours later, owing him more money, because his study [MRN] didn't necessarily "show" the cause of the compression, just that there is one. My kids WILL go to college instead.

Now, I am certain that there are readers out there, thinking, "then, you can't be that bad"...well, I am from a mind-set that one doesn't take down everyone with them [especially family], no matter how "dire" the problem or pain. Again, another example of how our personal ethics/morals affects our medical decision making, as well as tolerance to pain/physical dysfunction.

There are just too many vital structures [within the BP] that can be made worse if the surgeon doesn't have a complete understanding as to cause. By the time many of us get our dx, we are "out" of leaps.

For those that have had quick dx/treatment from whomever and are cured, god bless. Treasure that gift.

As always, this is only my "take on things" [from my own experience], and I am not here to start a fight.

[Sea Pines 50]

can we hold off asking him if we will become our national spokesperson for all things TOS, at least until he comes out of the anesthesia, i wonder?

because - and i know this will shock some of you - that is where my head wants to go right now...

good thing i don't have dragon speaking naturally, or naturally speaking, or whatever the F it's called. or a man around to set it up for me if i did have it. that would be dangerous. the equipment i mean, not the man (well maybe the man, too!! )

for now i think it would be best for me to simply resist the urge to email this poor young man because i'd probably say too much, or the wrong thing!

i do know having TOS strike you when you're that young is absolutely devastating; i was in my 20's myself when it hit me. i am glad that this was caught, diagnosed and is receiving a proper, timely intervention this early in the game (pardon the pun) in this young man's case.

he is extremely lucky to have a high profile in the world of sports and the access to sports medicine that he enjoys (yes i realize good genes, talent and hard work help, too) which are making it possible for him to get the proper care without having to go through the years and years of misdiagnoses, undertreatment, mistreatment, undermedication (or NO medication), unnecessary surgeries, inappropriate affective mood disorders dx's abounding in our charts and on and on and on....that so may of us TOS's have had to suffer for weeks, if not for months, if not for years.

sadly, some of those affective disorders indeed fit by the time you land in a TOS specialist's office and what has actually been going on is figured out, and usually PDQ i might add!

getting back to the news story about our impossibly cute ballplayer/TOS'er, i love the denial part about his teammates totally thinking he was going to play that next game in the series (in FL, was it?) after his being dx/d w/TOS severe enough for surgical intervention. you can almost hear them "But you'll be there Sat., right, dude? The guys are countin' on ya' now!!!" so little understanding. even less compassion and of course zero empathy for what the poor guy is about to go through...

but we know, don't we. we'll be thinking of him now and all the days through. sounds like an F'ing soap, i know, but it's true! i hope he does wnd his way over here to nuerotalk. that might be useful for his recovery from surgery, if he's open to it, just like everything else. of course we would love it as well. here's hopin'! my experience is that you can't force these things, though and especially someone like this - he must be overwhelmee, getting more bombarde each day with wellmeaning "advice" about what to do's this/that/the other thing's.

too much and i think your brain shuts down. especially if you're in pain. especially if you're in your twenties, trying hard to gain independence from your parents, forge a career, make a lfe, all of it. and a TOS curveball thrown into the middle of all of it?

yikes.

i have so much empathy i'm not going to send him an email. i think it would be cruel. plus i have a way of scaring people off; iv'e been told that more than once.

probably why i sleep alone.

bye for now,
alison

you can see whu, can't you?

alison

[olecyn]

You are too funny.

I have to agree though that atheltes are blessed with a quick dx and ALL the necessary medical treatment with kid gloves unlike ALL of us.

We should ALL send him a get well card from the board saying:
Exactly that with a small
P.S.
And if you are back playing ball in 3 months, we want your docs and therapists.

[dawn3063]

That wasn't why I posted it..
I just thought it was intersting when I came across it.. You hardley ever see the word TOS listed especially with pro sports people.
It seems that TOS is a syndrome that doesn't exsist among many in the medical community...
Now, I must go watch my soaps.. .. I wish.. Off to Physical Therapy.. and Desensitization...
Hugs to all
Dawn