cyn,
i like to fool around, probably a little too much. it gets me into trouble all the time! as you know facetiousness can be easily taken for sarcasm and that can be misconstrued as hurtful. or heck, it can be just plain hurtful (who am i trying to kidl?). i grew up in an extremely sarcastic family; zingers flying constantly and you had to learn how to defend yourself or you were down for the count. not such a good survival tool for me as an adult, i'm finding. very alienating, in fact.
it's something i'm working on. but it comes out all the time.
a couple of things. first of all, i did not mean to imply that my case was worse than anyone else's here just because it has been going on for so long, or took so many years to diagnose. to me, we are all in this thing together. i do want to be clear about that. i am sorry if anything i said sounded like i was trying to play that "one-up" game - i hate that, too!
the other thing is more important and has to do with the case at hand. since this young athlete does NOT have vascular TOS, according to reported accounts, but neurogenic, or primarily neurogenic TOS has stricken him, and as we all know this form is much, much harder to tx and does not respond nearly as favorably nor recover as rapidly to surgical intervention as the vascular TOS cases do... well i hate to say this, but i just don't see him getting back into the game in no three-months' time, cyn! sure, his surgeon has probably promised him that, but they always, always minimize things, don't they. i hope i'm wrong. but those nerves grow back very, very slowly don't they.
the other thing is, in my own personal opinion (and i have both neuro and vascular sx, like a lot of us do and i think you do, too), the nerve pain is the worst. just the worst! even the very rich and the very young cannot escape, would that it were so....
so all kidding aside, and i know you, cyn, and i know you would be the first to join me in this, i hope that the very top TOS surgeons (which i am sure the young man has at least two of!) will open him up and find a clear cause for what's causing the nerve compression, and remove it plus any anomalous myofascial tissue, etc. compounding the problem, perform the necessary neurolysis, lysis quickly and begone!
but then begins the real work, the post-op PT and OT, which again i presume will be first-rate and TOS-savvy. and that is as it should be, and can only help our cause in the end, for it serves both to educate the medical community and to raise the level of public awareness when something as painful and dramatic as this strikes down one of our young american heroes.
let's hope his ordeal is brief. but i for one do not kid myself; he's in for some painful nerve regenerative processes that no one among us can avoid no matter how superlative the care. muscles need to be rebalances before any real strengthening can begin; many of us learned that lesson the hard way - as did our well-meaning therapists.
does that mean i'm not totally envious of the kid myself? oh, hell-o, no! i'm as guilty of that as the next, believe me. i'm awatchin' with interest, kid! (the one in back, green around the gills with envy
)...
but i also feel for dude. and am rooting for him, just like i know you guys are.
curious, too, about how a human body in tip-top shape, young, strong and with a timely dx and the best medical care available to western medical science in this day and age, will be able to respond to a foe as mighty as TOS! if he is able to get back out onto the playing field in the year 2007 i think that will be totally awesome!
it is said that all of the big advances are coming out of sports medicine and rehab/PT - for a reason. that's where the money is; follow 'de money! how sad is that? but it makes sense, doesn't it? it is when these highly paid, highly motivated athletes become injured that action gets taken, promoters, owners, advertisers, gamblers and god knows who else put their $ where their mouth is and necessary funds become miraculously available for scientific and medical RESEARCH to be done, forget about getting any particular individual shining star the immediate dx, tx and media attention they need at that particular moment. (or trade them, immediately, before anyone get's wind of it! [for i'm positive that probably happens, too...what do you mean, not showing up at the next game, you punk! you just invalidated your contract, what "injury" - look fine to me...prove it!])
my 10 year old niece says i talk to myself too much. i say, i have a rich fantasy life.
or some days the comeback is, "nobody else will talk to me. i have no choice!"
anyhew, i hope i made some sort of sense to your, cyn or to somebody here. i have to go lie down now!
alison
