Another Tos'er here. I had surgery to remove a rib on the right side and to relieve the chest pain on the left they did a new surgery where they removed 3 inches of muscle under my left arm.

You still have TOS at the end of the day after surgery. It helps relieve some of the symptoms but it's not a cure.

The surgery is the roughest one I had as Dealingwithtos said. It took me a year to heal from the surgery but like her I ended up with RSD after that.

I consider my surgeries successful though. I don't have the numbness and tingling now nor the pain I had in my arms and hands. The only time I have it is when I try and hang clothes on a line, look at clothes on a clothing rack that is higher then me. Such as a dress rack. I still don't have a pulse when I raise my arm. My nurses cannot get a pulse in my left arm where I haven't had the rib removed. I did have a flare here awhile back from doing things I shouldn't have been doing. My arms don't go to sleep at night anymore either.

I also spent 4 years in PT for TOS, RSD, Fibro and back and neck problems and had great PT'ers.

To me the pain from TOS is almost up there with the RSD until you get it dealt with.

I do feel the surgery is important if you can seperate the pain and see that it is really bad.

I think it's a matter of finding the right Vascular surgeon. I had one of the best and we still talk on the phone after 9 years. He called me awhile back to see how I was doing and we have emailed.

Seeing a Vascular Surgeon is something you should do to determine if you have TOS. As I said though I spent 4 years in PT and the TOS was the only issue we couldn't calm down.

My Dr. now does triggerpoint injections to calm it down for me. He uses Lidocaine and it worked again this last time I got my chest going.

For 8 years though I dealt with solid chest pain until he took the 3 inches of muscle out from under my arm.

I hope you don't have the TOS though.

Ada