the first two specialists I saw, at very big name east coast places, immediately said do surgery to remove rib (like in minutes from getting my images, which were a single mra and a single x-ray). First one wouldn't even address the issue of scar tissue, tho that was also clearly involved, second one said they'd clean it all out, as well as have a collarbone specialist rebuild my collarbone which had been broken and repaired already (why? they just do).

Third one, at another big name place, mixed someone else's records in with mine, and so botched diagnosis, so I'll never know what he finally would have come up with, tho he finally got incontrovertible images of the scar tissue that was actually causing the vtos problems.

Fourth one, back in NYC, did some further imaging, said the problem was solely caused by excessive scar tissue, bones & spacing were fine. Said even tho he was a surgeon, he would NOT, NO, NOT recommend surgery because messing with scar tissue is more likely to cause further damage, and in someone like me who is known to scar excessively, only cause more scarring and more problems.

Until something happens or progresses to where there is no choice but to do something, or someone can tell me how they address and prevent the scarring issues, no one is touching me. Chopping out healthy body parts is not something to be done hastily or taken lightly. And what I was reading at the time indicated that scarring after the tos surgery was one of the major reasons for it failing, and that even in people who have normal scarring responses, let alone someone like me.