hi

Everyone is different and I think a lot depends on how bad you are pre-op as to what the post-op experience is like.

I had my first rib removed nearly four months ago - by the time I had surgery I had severe vascular and neurogenic TOS plus was dizzy when I turned my head (it's because it narrows the thoracic outlet even more so reduces blood supply to the affected arm and head for some people) and was on a cocktail of painkillers.

I was very very sore immediately post-op and was in hospital for 5 days. I needed a lot of help for the first few weeks but was getting increasingly independent after about 4 weeks and wasn't really ready to go back to work till about three months.

I'm still on some painkillers especially as my nerve pain hasn't gone yet and having regular physiotherapy but I've been back at work for a month on reduced hours. For me, I feel like I'm on my way to getting my life back but my quality of life was so bad before the surgery that I'm obviously biased.

It is certainly not a minor op - and you will need lots of support especially initially - and as we all keep saying you need to trust your surgeon knows what they're doing before making the final decision.

If you search the forums with something like "post-operative recovery", some people in the past have listed exactly what they were able to do and when which might also help. I certainly found it useful when I was getting frustrated that I wasn't getting better faster than I thought I should.

Hope this helps

Jenny