Originally Posted by saracb

Hi, I am new here. I was recently diagnosed with venous TOS.
I developed TOS after a swimming injury which happened after some hard workouts using paddles and doing a lot of back stroke. I was also an amateur violinist so that probably contributed. I had not been swimming like that for long - just a few months, but I am small and must have pushed it too much.
I do know that I had a clot in my subclavian/cephalic area which is now chronic. I have some compression - my veins on my left side are prominent, you can see them but they don't protrude. Swelling has gone down. My symptoms are slight numbness in my left arm and pain. I don't swim or play violin any more. I was running but that bothers me so I want to get my symptoms under control before exercising again.
I have just started on this journey but am not inclined to do the surgery at least not right away. I'm trying chiropractic and deep tissue massage and get relief. It's pretty amazing - I can feel warmth coming back to my left arm.
Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has successfully avoided the surgery.
And glad I found this forum. It's so hard to find information on this! I'll probably be reading every post in the next few days...
Thanks!