Hello everybody,

I am a 52 yo male and i am pleased to have found this wonderful forum that I wish I had found some time ago. I live in Australia and we have the same issues with access to medical treatments as other countries, so you find good professionals, you want to hang on to them!

My TOS was diagnosed late 2010 after i noticed periodic slashing pain in the lower thoracic spine. I was ultimately diagnosed with a very large tumour in my neck (RHS) that had grown amongst the nerves, muscles, tendons and had compressed all the tissue in the right thoracic outlet area.

This resulted in the tingling in the fingers, cold and painful arm, collapsed shoulder and it was twisting my spine. Needles to say, I became quite precious at work, and everywhere else.

Surgery was successful but five months later scar tissue has grown and created much the same symptoms as before, and now my surgeon says a 1st rib resection is his next step, along with clearing the scar tissue as best he can.

I have been resisting this step until now, and after finding this forum, I now have the confidence to go ahead with it, as I do not feel so alone anymore.

I look forward to following all the posts of the most recent surgeries and happy to post my own experiences if anyone would like to follow.