I am a nurse, they found cervical ribs when I was 38. Had the surgery and had to slow down work until finally I found a way to survive without nursing. If you do have TOS it usually is a life long problem. It has been for me. I had to adjust my whole life around it. I am not trying to scare you, just telling the truth. Nursing is a very stressful occupation and stress makes TOS worse as you probably already know. The surgeries do not stop all the pain because they are major surgeries that change your skeleton forever.

I also had chronic infections everywhere, I finally started taking tons of vitamin C 5,000mg a day and all the infections just stopped.....was huge relief as the infections were very painful. you have to work up to that dose of vitamin c but this really works. I believe the stress from pain every day causes our immune systems to malfunction. good luck to you.