Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonBailey
The only test she has tested positive on is the one where she raises her hand over her head and then measure her pulse. I think the test was called the allen's test and it was a doplar study. I am not clear on what type of surgery it will be other than that the doctor plans on going in through the arm pit and removing the first rib. He says that the worst thing that could happen is that the surgery is unsuccessful and that the symptoms remain. He says that he has never made anyone worse. He also teaches at the local university in the vascular surgery department.
We are worried that if we delay surgery he will become annoyed and not want anything further to do with us. It took a long time to get a surgeon's interest. But, at the same time we are worried, based on the location and some reading on the internet, that the surgery might cause worse problems down the line.
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Hi,
I am guesssing you are from Boston. Is Dr. Donohue your surgeon? He has been highly recommended on this site by others. Also I believe at his university there are physical therapists that he works with. I know he also does botox injections.Surgery should be a last resort. You cannot worry about the Dr. being annoyed. If he is then he is not the dr. for you. YOU ARE IN CONTROL and must do what is best for your daughter. If you havent tried a good pt who has experience with TOS,she should try this first. Perhaps over the summer when she doesnt have as much work.
I have NTOS,I have been off work for a year. I was getting treatment for a disc problem for 9 months and my symptoms kept getting worse. I saw several pt's chiros etc before I finally got the TOS diagnosis . I then tried 2 pts that I found from this forum and on the second one I hit a jackpot with. It is targeted Rib and joint mobilization and soft tissue mobilization. It has really helped me. I still have a long road ahead, and dont know what will happen when I try to go back to work. I kept thinking I would be better in a couple of months and be back to work, but it didnt happen that way,and we cant just will our bodies to behave.
I looked into surgery and decided I am not going to go that route for now. The average surgical outcome is 70 percent. Some dr's will tell you theirs is 90. I believe these froums are skewed because people dont go on as much unless they have a problem so it can be a little scary to hear about all the things that can go wrong after. It has definately colored my view rightly or wrongly,but there was a time I was desperate enough to try anything. I think the recovery can take awhile before going back to work. It may be that she will have to take some time off from school
This is only MY EXPERIENCE from talking to Many dr's and doing research. GOOD LUCK I hope this helps.
jkl