TOS is a highly specialized area. You're likely to encounter a lot of resistance unless you go to a specialist, because there's a fair amount of controversy in medicine as well when it comes to what I fondly refer to as Thoracic Whatlet? Syndrome …

The real "experts" tend to be vascular surgeons. But to put together a good treatment team, ideally you would have a neurologist, a pain management physician, a PCP, a PT and/or a chiropractor or bodyworker on board, all of whom are knowledgeable about the diagnosis and treatment of TOS. I don't see any reason not to consult a surgeon just for the diagnosis, even if surgery is the LAST thing on your mind (as it should be, imho! - unless your case is vascular and the options few ).

In addition to checking the 'Drs. and PTs' sticky thread, try entering your hometown (or closest big city) and state where prompted in the 'Search This Forum' function at the upper righthand portion of your screen, to see what pops up.

Prior threads and posts often will contain information about our healthcare providers which may not have made its way into the sticky thread, for whatever reason. All you need is one! They all tend to know each other, so you can get references to other TOS specialists as needed from there…

Good luck! I hope you don't have TOS, but am glad you've found us, in case you do. Let us know how you're doing, OK?

Alison