Hi mucker,

So GOOD to hear surgery went well for you - and isn't it a relief to have it behind you?! Patience is the word for now; it may take 3-6 weeks after surgery to get over the effects of the surgery on your body and feel returned to full function. Recovery of the nerves can take 12 months, although I did see some muscle return more than 18 months after my pec minor release, so that window can be longer. Meaning, those who have hand atrophy, don't despair if you don't see muscle growth within the first year - if it takes a year or a little more for the nerves to regenerate, muscle can't reappear until AFTER that regeneration is complete.

Try to take things easy with your left arm as much as possible mucker. TSers often use their good arm so much they then are dx'd with "overuse" syndrome in the previous asympyomatic side. I think if you have TOS on one side you are at risk for developing it bilaterally, and the "overuse" term is a garbage-basket dx, personally. My "overuse" syndrome felt just like mild TOS, and has progressed to severe TOS, and early EMG said I had carpal tunnel - yeah, right, with a dx of TOS on the right?

Re: the chest tube - When resecting a first rib, surgeons are VERY close to the lung with a VERY sharp instrument. If the pleura (sac enclosing the lung) is nicked, some surgeons deflate the lung to prevent further injury and/or to give themselves more room to work. Then when the resection is done, they close the pleura, but leave a drain in place to remove any fluids that may have made it into the lung. An x-ray is done often, sometimes still in the OR, in post-op, and a couple more times post-op to ensure the lung re-inflates and stays inflated, and there is no fluid build-up. The drain comes out a few days post-op if all is fine. Sounds like your surgeon is one of those who takes a different approach, hoping to avoid messing with the lung, but did nick the pleura (which is very hard NOT to do), and the lung collapsed. He opted to forgo the drain and watch and see how the lung reinflated, and whether or not a drain was needed, rather than doing anything he considered invasive. X-rays and breathing apparatus are the same regardless. The downside is if fluid DOES build up it means going back in to the OR and being opened up again - no fun. But both approaches are legitimate.

The strange feelings on the back of your arm are normal post-op and may last awhile - the nerves to that area were pulled and pushed aside, albeit gently, quite a bit, while they got that bit of rib out through the incision, mucker, and it will take quite a while for them to stop being , well, PO'd about it! In fact, numb is good - in a few weeks they will have more feeling than they've been accustomed to all the time the compression has been occurring - once they wake up to the fact that they are now free, the PARTYING begins - and that gets very uncomfortable! The bright side of that is that it DOES calm down, and it means that YES, the nerves are alive!!!

mucker, I found ice very welcome after surgery - although since I have RSD I most likely should have kept far away from it - but NOT at the incision site. I placed it in a zip-loc bag, wrapped in a towel for skin safety, and placed it over the collarbone/brachial plexus area - the site where the surgery actually took place. That was where my greatest pain was, and the ice helped greatly there. I couldn't stand much of anything directly on the incision at first, but a warm rice pack felt good a couple of weeks out.

Vitaman E capsules - break them open and rub the oil into the incision - really helps it fade - but not till Dr says it's ok!! I also have a tube of ointment called NuSkin that works like magic to fade scars and scratches.

Please make sure that puppy gets trained very well to leash and knows that both dear man and YOU are alpha dogs, NOT pup. My spouse could walk our last dog, but every time I did she pulled on the leash the entire time - 35 lbs of lab retriever/border collie mix! Oh, my aching arms!! Can you say obedience school drop-out? Not one SHRED of interest in conforming to the rules, that one - possibly why we butted heads?

Anyway, please take care, treat yourself gently and remember these icky, achy days will pass.

All my best,
beth