Originally Posted by shug2003

Thompson did my surgery. He was great prior to the surgery. He told me afterwards that I absolutely needed it because of all the scar tissue. Post-op was a different story. You go to the physical therapists for 1 session and they give you a few exercises to do when you go home....that's it. I live in Michigan so I wasn't going to travel to St. Louis for PT sessions. I had post-op imaging done at Mayo clinic 1 and a half years after the surgery and it showed scarring over the brachial plexus nerve roots, trunks, and cords. It showed suprascapular neuropathy. Also, they said I had chronic DVT in my right arm where the surgery was done, and possible arterial occlusive disease at the right radial level. None of my studies before the surgery said I had DVT in my arm so I believe it was caused by the surgery. When I brought this up with Dr. Thompsons office, they stopped answering my calls and emails. Verdella Brink is the secretary....she answered every single email I sent before the surgery. When I brought up the fact that I was still in pain and had a DVT in my arm 2 years post-op....no answer. They pretty much wrote me off.

I think what is really needed if you do have this surgery is someone (manual therapist) who is hands on that will break up some of the scar 4 or so weeks after surgery. Otherwise, you have no idea where the resected scalenes will reattach to. That's what they do, they scar and form onto surrounding tissue. My pec and scalenes are WAY tighter than they were prior to the surgery. My whole chest burns and has allodynia because of the surgery. I was fine right after the procedure, the nurses said I was the best patient they've had post op because I didn't complain about the pain. It was months later where all the issues came up. Thompson did not take the scalenes out all the way either, he resected medial and anterior scalene. He also only partially took out the rib, something I wasn't aware of until after the surgery.