a visit to my surgeon
 

So I went to see my surgeon yesterday for follow up and to discuss my problems that I am still having. My first surgery was done using the transaxillary approach. After surgery, I was told he was surprised by the amount of compression that I had. The nurse told me that my scalenes were double in size that she normally sees. I still have pain in neck, arm and spasms anytime I use the left arm. I also get tingling in neck, hand, and face. My right side is less painful, but I know the artery is being pinched, and I get pain in wrist, hand, elbow and neck and dizziness. The surgeon would like to revisit the left side first using the supraclavicular approach. He stated that he wanted to solve the issues on the left before doing the right. I will continue with pt to get things in check. When this all started for me in early 2011, therapy was showing improvement to my right side, but for whatever reason it got worse over the last several months. Well we will continue to battle and see where it takes us. This coming tuesday, I need to travel 2.5 hrs to visit another doctor that my pension board wants me to see. Not really looking forward to being in a car that long. And no I am not driving, I have trouble driving a few miles. This has been a crazy journey, but hopefully things will improve. I am doing better than I was a year ago, but I want more of my life back. Ok enough typing before i cause a flare.

For the car trip, takes lots of pillows/padding to support your head, neck & arms.
Ugh, I remember how horrible riding in the car was during my really bad times.
husbands car is a stick shift and between the shifting and potholes /rough roads...:(

Good luck with the pension board doctor.
I'm sorry they didn't find one closer to you..

I thought it was bad enough having to drive 45 minutes to go see the wc doctor...2.5 hrs is really bad, just seems kind of ridiculous, for anyone to have to travel that far, unless he is a specialist of some sort regarding your type of injury/case.

well the first one they sent me to was 25 min away. they did not like his right up and the way that he rated me, I guess. so they decided to send me to another one. From my understanding, he rated tos very low and said I should be fine with in a year. He did not put a rating on my ms at all. I can not understand it when I submitted test results showing problems. I assume it is because of all the years when people got disabilities for bogus claims. Thanks to them, I am stuck going through all this extra stuff.

If it is kind of like work comp, you can ask for a copy of the doctor reports, to see what has been reported, on wc the IME drs often make reports with many errors. The WC ins pays the tab for the IME evaluations.. so the reports are often slanted to minimize the claimants injuries.

Plus a brief one time IME doc visit is very hard to convey all symptoms and pain, and if they don't know about TOS or chronic RSIs it's kind of a waste of time, but you have to do it anyway..

I don't know if the pension board operates in a biased way like that or not.

thanks jomar. yes they operate the same way. I will make sure I get report.

The transaxillary approach does not allow for full scalenectomy which is what I am guessing is the next step for you due to your scalene hypertrophy. My symptoms were similar to yours. My left side surgery was transaxillary but I did not have scalene hypertrophy. My right side rib resection (same approach) is next week.

My warning to you is not to overdue therapy. I found that certain neck exercises and stretching were exacerbating my problem. Sticking to rib and nerve mobilization have proved less problematic in therapy for me.

Thanks Marc, I know that when I stretch to much I do have more problems. It is a fine line that is for sure. I do have a lot more range of motion than I had a year ago, but if I stretch to much, my neck tightens up. Also there are days when massage feels good and days it is awful.