Quote:
Originally Posted by Blurto
Is that Dr Mark Ray from Greenslopes PH? and nobody is a bother to others, we are all here to provide personal experiences as a support mechanism when all others come up short. A lot of it is for the mental health aspect as well which surgeons and PT providers don't care to mention because they have no experience of the debilitating affects and the lack of empathy really messes with your head (personal experience and opinion there).
You have not told us if you have had the standard brace of tests and images taken, but if you read through my original posts, I've mentioned how MRIs etc are also to dismiss theories as well as confirm them. For example, my Doppler ultrasound was a waste of time (I thought) because the Venography showed where the blockage was perfectly and also showed that excessive workload placed on nearby veins to take up the flow. The Doppler showed the exact time of blockage occurring when I raised my arm, my surgeon needed to know.
Don't let anything you read here put you off. Looking out for your best interests in getting the most from tests and images is important and if you have two ribs fusing, your issue requires more care. As LiveLoveandTrust and I have said, if you leave it longer, other vascular issues WILL arise, that is advice from our surgeons, we dont make that stuff up.
Has Dr Ray discussed the two methods of entry? Armpit (or axilla) usually for the simple ones and has minimal disruption to nerve bundles and generally results in a quicker recovery (apologies to Marc from Orange County  ) then supraclavicular, from the front above and below the collar bone (clavicle) for the bigger jobs. Mine was the second and i have been quite slack in updating my progress on my own thread. (I will post a CT Scan soon that shows the result in glorious 3D).
Can you tell what scans you have had done and what they looked like?  |
First of all big thankyou to all the replies they are all very helpful in different ways. Mainly addressing Blurto's post - yes it is Dr Mark @ Greenslopes and he said to go in from above but he might need to go in from the armpit as well.
I've been for heaps of tests, 3 ultrasounds, CT Angiogram, Xrays and MRI. The MRI actually showed nothing but that was because my shoulder was slightly forwards in the tunnel thus switching the TOS 'off'. I was wrong in my post earlier and after checking the scans it's the subclavien artery that occludes not the vein, the vein has done something odd and grew around the problem?? Don't ask me to explain the technicalities, the ultrasound lady seemed astonished and kept saying that it had somehow 'morphed' (is that the right word anyways XD) and isn't in the place where it's meant to be. I couldn't understand what she was on about tbh.
All the other tests especially the Angiogram show the 1st and 2nd ribs fused with a bony mass type connection thus pinching the artery when the shoulder comes forward. I'm about 80% to put this op off and see how things go but of course I'll be on the look out for anything that might eventuate away from the usual symptoms that i'm now completely accustomed to.