So, At long last, I think I am ready to post the "how I chose my surgeon" post.

For anyone who is interested in my TOS story, here is a good place to start

To summarize, I am in Los Angeles, I have bilateral TOS with some decided differences in symptoms from the right to the left. On the right side of my symptoms are primarily in my hands fourth and fifth digit numbness/tingling, numbness in my wrist that is almost constant, snd general pain in neck and traps.

Left side- severe pain in neck and traps that never goes away and i have that same butcher knife that Dimarie always talks about sticking in right about where my rhomboid is. I get spasms all the way up and down my back, which make it so that I can even sit in a chair for too long. I get occasional numbness and tingling in my fourth and fifth digit, and only recently realized that I have a place on the inside of my thumb and forearm that's constantly numb.

So, even though my hands don't bother me as much on the left side. It is the one I am choosing to have surgery on first because my back bothers me so much.

I visited 5 surgeons-and I'll post my stories, However, a word of caution, I found my own experiences with these various doctors to be different than what I had expected based on stories from this board.

So If you are looking for a surgeon - visit as many as you can and ask as many questions as you can to get the most complete picture of how that surgeon would approach your own specific case.


Lastly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who shared their experiences with me, either by posting on the board or by p.m.. I found them to be very helpful, and they gave me a deeper understanding of each person to my own experience. These accounts also helped guide me to asking the correct questions for things that seemed like warning signs for issues.

Now before I lose all of this somehow into cyberspace , I will submit it and continue on in a new post.