Quote:
Originally Posted by romans8
Cltbaseball9,
I think we had surgery the same morning as I remember my wife saying she talked to someone whose husband was a baseball coach while we were in surgery and they were in the waiting room. I am glad to see you are doing well.
For TOSmother I agree with everything he said about taking it slow. I have also experienced some return of pain since physical therapy started and I tried to be a little more active. However I am encouraged as the pain is somewhat different than what I experienced before surgery. I also believe something I read on this forum about the length and difficulty of the recovery being somewhat proportional to the length of time and severity of the TOS before surgery. Age and overall physical condition may also be factors. For these reasons I am prepared for a year or more to realize the full benefit from this. I was also very active athletically before this hit me 8 years ago but have lost a lot of muscle and cardio from being inactive this long. I have tried riding a stationary bike a few times since the surgery but even this seems to irritate the nerves in the neck and shoulder so I may need to forget this and walking significant distances for a while. It's tricky because I do not hurt while doing these things but the nerves really fire up afterwards.
We are pulling for you and your daughter.
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Romans8,
I was wondering about that myself after I re-read some of your posts. I think your surgery might have been just before mine. My wife did mention that she had been talking with another wife in the waiting room. I think it helped to calm my wife down having someone there who understood what you and I are going through.
I hope you are doing better and hope you don't have anymore setbacks like you did not long after surgery.
I definitely understand what you mean when you say you are going to forget about walking a significant distance anywhere. I think it's getting better but it might take longer than I expected. Like you, when I do a light workout of some sort I feel ok for the most part while I'm doing it but afterwards my nerves flare up too. And sometimes, not all of the time, I find myself out of breath just walking upstairs to check on my kids at night. I feel as if I just sprinted a lap around a track. I did a quick little jog to the mailbox and back today (about 45-50 yards total) and when I finished I felt alright. Tonight, I casually walked up the stairs to my son's room and was out of breath...lol.....it was so frustrating but I couldn't help laughing at myself thinking "wow I'm old and out of shape at 40!"
I'm just glad that the pains that I feel now aren't the same as the pain I had before surgery and I know these pains will go away as I heal. I do feel stronger every day and I know I must be patient because realistically it will probably be close to a year or so before I am back to my old self, pre-TOS. I just have to remember to take it slow even on the days I feel good because recovery is like going up a ladder and you have to take it one step up at a time to be safe.
Oh, I do have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind me asking.
Have you lost or gained any weight since your surgery? How is your appetite? Here is why I ask, I am 6 foot tall and when I went into surgery I weighed in at 228 pounds. When I was still playing ball in my late 20s my playing weight was around 210-215 so I haven't let myself go too much...haha...Anyways, as of today I am now down to 197 pounds and I haven't been below 200 since I was playing college ball 21 years ago. For some reason I just don't have much of an appetite yet. I'm not going to complain about losing the weight, especially since it has helped lower my blood pressure, so I am just curious if you have been affected in this way.
cltbaseball9