Resection is done, surgeon found other problems
 

First thing I heard when i woke up is the surgeon saying he found something really abnormal. He said on the underside of my shoulder blade there was a growth (he's not sure if it was bone or cartilage) sticking out about 1.5 inches. Also, part of my pectoral muscle was hung up on that growth. he said he's never seen that before. when he opened me up he said he saw that muscle in the wrong place. so, he took out the growth and the muscle (he said my normal pec muscle was still in place, this was like an extra muscle???).

My shoulder blade on that side has always winged and now it doesn't!

does this seem weird to you all???

by the way, he did take out the rib. my recovery is going great. although the night after the surgery was horrible. i couldn't get comfortable, was nauseous from the drugs and my nurse was MIA. I could have strangled that nurse. i was as miserable as i've ever been in my life. literally 15 minutes after her shift ended the next nurse had me sleeping. she brought in a lazyboy and a i slept like a baby!

anyway, i feel great! recovery so far has been a piece of cake. except for the one sneeze :)

curious if any of you have heard of a growth like that???

That's great news ! ! ! !

I'm so happy for you. This is encouraging.

Take it easy and keep us posted when you can.

be a good patient and you'll get better results.

Hopefully, they biopsed the growth. I had a large growth on my 1st rib that sounds similar to yours. It was biopsed (preliminary) during surgery with a final report issued after surgery. It was benign.

I've never heard of anything like that either.
That growth must not have showed on any of the imaging.
Hope all continues to go well..
:grouphug:

wouldnt a growht have shown up on SOME IMAGING?? that is scary!

I am so glad that it is healing and the Lazy boy was wonderful for you. I have slept in one now abt 4 years.

The bony growth, not on my wings, but on the hips, weird for sure. I wonder from the years of the cycle, muscle displacment or misplacement caused the bony growth or the other way around?

A lot of people have anomolies, and unless they have surgery it would never be diagx. I am glad that the doc did find your issue, and decided to wait to surgically intervene in the rib area unless he had too.

Keep us updated to see how things are healing. I would even post a thread titled bony growth on wings in case someone in the cyber world of TOS is diagx with something similar or with your symptoms.

OH, my wings did not flare but the hip did, and the growth developed. Not sure the name of it, kind of like a bone spur. I had one in the foot too?
Take care

well, i'm 1.5 wks post resection. still doing ok. had a setback on Tuesday and Wednesday - missed work because both days because i just wasn't sleeping at all. i was in a ton of pain w/ no pain meds left. to top it off i had an allergic reaction to tylenol pm. not a fun couple days. right now i'm feeling better, my arm pit is completely bruised. it's entirely bruised. also, where the rib was is pretty painful.

other than that, things are going ok. i still feel some pain in my shoulder but it's hard to tell w/ everything going on exactly where the pain is coming from. but, it does feel a lot like my old burning pain that i was hoping i'd never feel again. i guess i'll give it some time before i start forming opinions.

take care all!

You're back at work already?
Do you have to commute very far to work?

When was your surgery?

Work? What?

Aftercare is the most critical point to success. Did you read the post-surgical information they gave you? They did give you some, right?

Please... no magic here.

yip, i'm back at work. i had the surgery on wed 4/6 and went to work on monday 4/11. that was a mistake, as you all know. however, when i went back to work again on thursday it wasn't bad at all. i pretty much just sit in meetings all day and i had an ice pack at work.

today was one of my least painful days of work that i can remember (outside of a couple times when i opened a door w/ my affected arm).

i've followed their post op documents but most of it was pretty general. the surgeon told me that i don't have to lay off too much that my shoulder would tell me when i'm ready for things and to not overdue it. i don't know. today was great though!

Good to hear it is going well for you, It's always nice to hear that.:)

Be sure to take care with any fast reactive moves, bumps and such.

Good results are always very helpful for others to read about if/when they have to consider surgery.

U get the tough man's trophy.

I just don't think you should be doing that. To much at stake.

This will be interesting to see how it does in the long term.

I sure hope you are taking it eaaaaaaasssssssyyyyy at work and you're getting paid weeeeeelllllllllll ! ! ! ! ! And your surgeon knows that you're back at work.

I pray you recover godspeed ! ! !

i'm curious what you all were told for after surgery care and when you could go back to work???

for the most part it's been pretty easy w/ very little pain. the most painful thing has actually been my back pain. to make the shoulder feel better i've been sitting w/ very poor posture. this always kills me and it's worse now than ever. ugh!!! my shoulder feels awesome right now though. except for where the incision is, i have very little pain in my shoulder. it's elsewhere that hurts.

I would be concerned about sitting with very poor posture just to get by for now... in the long term it might come back to bite you. :(

Things are healing and you don't want to mess up the healing by putting your body in bad positions.
Plus if it is a big posture change from how you sat before the surgery , those muscles will be complaining a lot.


I haven't had surgery but have been reading the forums since 04.
Generally month or 6 weeks off, if they return to work at all.
But we usually don't hear too much from those that had surgery and did really well long term, they may post for a short time and then get on with life. I don't blame them at all, I would do the same if I was back at work and doing all the normal things of full time job & running a household.

A lot depends on what kind of job they do, how they are responding in recovery, medications, pain levels.
I suppose age & general fitness plays a big part too.

I think I was told by two cardiothoracic surgeons I would be off work 6 weeks, or 6 months. can't remember which. I couldn't take off 6 hours at that time. so I thought. It's certainly robbed me of precious time in so many ways.

I am very concerned with your working. Did your surgeon release you? Does your surgeon know you're back at work?

What type of work do you do?

Do you have to do any physical therapy?

Are you on pain pills? You can and will overdo it with pain pills. You don't feel it at the time, but oh, later...

I dont know how old you are or where you live, but rib resection is a major operation, unless you've had something new.

Would love to breeze through it (1 week) and go back to work, like pre-TOS. They certainly didn't say I could do that right after surgery. Actually they didn't make a lot of good promising statements for surgical outcomes.

The risk of falls, wrecks, lifting, purses, managing ADLs, etc.

Very worried because it's your opportunity to heal without scar tissue becoming a bigger problem later on down the road, and needing another surgery to remove the scar tissue. Common problem with rib resection.

Praying you recover with no residual effects of TOS...

Let us know whta's going on with you?

You're too tough. Take care of yourself.

I have to admit, i'm not the best about following the dr.'s instructions, or even listening to them :).

I work in an office. I typically am in meetings about 6 hours a day. working really isn't any more difficult physically than sitting at home. I can also work from home whenever i need to.

No physical therapy (is that odd for a rib resection???).

No pain pills! they actually didn't give me enough. I had the surgery on wed and ran out of pain pills by saturday. sunday - wednesday were horrible!!!!!! probably slept a total of about 6 hours those 3 days. i was a wreck! through my 5 surgeries i've always limited the pain pills i've taken. i throw some away after every surgery. not this time. i was in hell.

I am taking it very easy though. Mostly, because of what I'm reading on here. The doctor really didn't make a big deal of it. He said my body would tell me when i'm ready for certain activities. but, i feel ready for more. i've been avoiding lifting anything w/ my right arm. most of my email is done on my phone which is a bit more comfortable since the keyboard is closer and i have to move less. i've never used a mouse, i use a rollermouse which is the greatest invention ever!!! :)

i still have some tos symptoms. I was really hoping they'd end w/ the surgery. That's one area that i'm kind of in the dark on. I don't know how quickly the symptoms were supposed to go away. however, some days i feel way better than pre-surgery already! today, the burning pain is back. so is the weakness in my hand. it seems like they come and go together. i really hope they end up going for good!!!

well, it's been a month and a half since i had my rib removed just thought i'd check in and let you all know how i'm doing. basically, i'm in rough shape. the surgery really didn't do anything so far other than increase my arm pain and the cramping in my arm/hand. the burning pain in my shoulder is worse than it was.

it's funny because i was so optimistic immediately after the surgery. I thought it was getting better every day. but once everything settled down and my life got back to normal - the pain was still there and some of it somehow is worse.

i have taken it easy. yes, i went back to work rather quickly but i seriously sit in meetings all day every day. my arm is resting by my side almost the entire day. i do email on my phone mostly because that's more comfortable and i can do it one handed easier.

anyway, maybe i never had tos to begin w/. i really don't know at this point. i'm going to give it a couple more months before i talk to the dr. about the pain pump again. in really rough shape right now. anyway, wish i had a better update. sorry to be such a drag.

So sorry to hear things are not going well for you . :grouphug:

But it is good to read your updates and every time someone has the surgery , the updates and comments taken all together will show the pros & cons for future members.

I do hope you will see some more improvement soon.

Some have mentioned big changes soon after surgery - usually with the ex c rib or vascular TOS , and some later, and some not much at all..

stay positive
 

I have been following your posts to see how you did after surgery. I am sorry that things have not turned out the way you hoped.
I also had rib resection was released from hospital and told I was cured,
but be sure to come back and get the left side done.
Yeah right I never did I also felt great right after the surgery and thought I waas cured. BIG MISTAKE! It came back and bit me in the behind several weeks later.
The important thing for you to do now is mentally try to think positive thoughts.....You know how you feel pace yourself.... NO More superman moves, Now it has to be about working with and accepting your limitations.
You may never be able to do the things you use to do the sooner you accept this the sooner you will be on the road to healing and moving on in your life.
I know where you are at I been there its hard to deal with at first.
I was so frustrated ! It will get better.

You sound like a very strong willful person don't let this set you back
just be careful Okay?

Someone who cares,
Andismom