Melanie,

I had surgery 5 and 1/2 years ago with an experienced TOS surgeon in SF. I'm much worse off. In addition to worsened daily pain and headaches, I've added migraines. I've never returned to work as an attorney or anything for that matter.

I took much less pain medication before the surgery. I wonder how I would have done if I'd had better pain management and not done the surgery.

I know some people have good results from surgery. People with cervical ribs and vascular TOS seem to have better outcomes. I have mostly neurogenic TOS, the result of repetitive work, and I developed scar tissue after surgery. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict how one will scar.

I chose surgery because I'd tried everything else and wanted to give myself a shot at getting better. You really need to do a gut check. If you are having serious misgivings or worry about surgery maybe you need to listen to that.

Good luck. If you do go forward with surgery, get yourself to a very experienced surgeon who specializes in TOS and have a physical therapist who knows how to treat TOS as part of your team.

Take care,
Kelly