Hi All!

I'm finally getting TOS surgery in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to get an idea of what to expect as to a recovery experience. I've already had a number of years of PT after getting a C5-C6 fusion to fix the numbness & pain problems (made things worse of course). Had wanted to try conservative treatment 1st and make sure TOS was the full culprit before undergoing more body part removal (also had to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt to docs that it wasn't carpal problems... ). Finally got myself referred to Hopkins and am getting it done by Julie Freischlag who's supposed to be one of the tops for TOS issues.

My fusion wasn't too bad tho I was a terrible patient on taking time to actually heal some before I waded back into life (really didn't have the option, am caregiver for mother with Alzheimer's & train mobility disability Service Dogs and of course Murphy's Law couldn't give me a break for once ). Have a feeling that tho I'm going to try to do better this time around, I'm probably going to be just as impatient a patient to get back to "normal". I'm supposed to have a 2 week down time before I start heavy PT for 12 weeks. Has anyone else had the TransAxillary TOS surgery approach? If so, how'd it go with pain at surgery and afterwards and how long before you were getting back to normal movement. Anything ya'll found that helped to alleviate the worst of the recovery time? Really not keen on undergoing the knife again but since I gotta, I want to get back to functioning ASAP and any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated!!

Many thanks!

Mary