Originally Posted by tpula

I am 39 and have been dealing with TOS since my early twenties though I didn't get a diagnosis until last year. I have been told I am a complicated case. I have been on disability for over a year now following my robotic rib resection which did little to help my symptoms. I have yet to proceed with surgery on my other side because I don't know who or what to believe anymore. Prior to my condition exploding, I was a technical leader for one of the largest tech companies on the planet. Long hours of computer use was the norm. Now I can't spend 15 minutes with my arms pronated before my arm/hand/shoulder symptoms rage. My hobbies included working out and playing guitar. The trifecta of repetitive stress activities. Now that I have gone through the surgery and have seen few if any improvements, I question whether my situation would be different had I been diagnosed 15 years earlier. My personal opinion is that continuing repetitive stress activities has the potential to take an acute problem and make it chronic/permanent. I am in the US and I do understand your situation living in India. I have visited Bangalore for work and had hoped to get back before all of this blew up. Regardless of where you live, my advice to those reading this post is to start collecting your medical records early on in the process. What seems trivial today may be critically important in the future depending how your TOS story unfolds. Buy a large binder and some tab dividers so that you can organize everything. This will be a 100% necessity if you are trying to navigate the mind numbing social security system in the US. Every time you see a doctor, a specialist, go for a test, etc., get a copy of the records and add it to the binder. If you have a specific discussion or event that you may need to recall at a later date, write it down and add it to the binder. I have a 4" binder that is almost full and that only covers the last 4 years of my life. I don't want to paint a picture of gloom and doom as everyone's TOS story is different. In my field, we say "security is a journey, not a destination". The same applies to here. TOS is a journey, not a destination.