Have been to Yale New Haven, have been to Columbia Presbyterian, both said would chop out rib, after looking at me, MRA, and cheap quality x-ray taken to check that screws & plate in collarbone are still tight, for about 5 minutes. Neither was very comforting, tho both were nice.

Recently went to Mass General, Dr. Donahue. HE spends time, lots of talking and checking, records review, further CT scan. Proposing muscle injections for further diagnosis, then we see from there. Says he goes to surgical solution as last step, after eliminating all other possibilities, because surgery is irreversible. No Kidding! Like him a lot. But he's 150 miles away. I drive no more than 5 miles at a time, all back roads only, anymore.

I have arterial and venous TOS. Nobody here knows what to do with me. Plus, they're all 30-second, "Poke'em, Pill'em, Bill'em, Bye" doctors. It better be simple, easy, and quick, or forget it. As you can tell, I am within range of many of the Big Places, but this is a little place, and we've concluded that the doctors here are the ones who couldn't cut it at the Big Places, this was as close as they could get. Local ER?--day or night, it takes at least 6 hours to get through the place, twice I/my kid were stuck in a curtain/room and FORGOTTEN, even tho seeing/asking people during whole time, it didn't occur to them that no one was in charge of us anymore (went off-shift) until we finally complained point blank. If you're sure you're in danger of dying, it's the place to go, otherwise, it's a place to avoid at all costs. Sigh.

And the hospital will NOT ALLOW me to see another vascular doctor in their system (which includes most everybody in the area, and everybody who has the slightest inkling of TOS) for a second opinion on their first guy. Office manager herself called to tell me that and cancel my appointment with someone else. It's policy. Their doctors are NOT ALLOWED to offer a contradicting opinion on each other. Explains a lot about the way things are here. Hence the trips farther out to the Big Names like Yale and Columbia.

My lists are so long, after this accident and all, that they don't even pretend to care, some of them. And then I get this "weird TOS thing", which many have barely heard about, and then its even the rarer kind of TOS, with weird extra effects like "the weird breathing thing" and "the eye thing" and "the dizziness thing", on top of the back problems and knee problems and arm problems and etc from the accident (which was 15 months ago). I need to turn this into a 30 second poke'em pill'em bill'em problem before I go in, or I'll just be wasting my time and energy, and energy is a rare thing anymore.

Sorry for letting loose. It's been a long long trip, and I don't see any possibility of an end, at this point. When I can at least figure out what something is, it makes it easier to tolerate. Also makes it easier to go to the doc when I can hand them the info so they don't have to figure it out for themselves.