V/TOS surgery in 2 weeks! Recovery questions!
 

After months of pain and swelling in L arm, lab work, massive round of Prednisone(pcp thought I was having allergic reaction), venous ultrasound, x-ray and ct scan.....a venogram finally revealed the venous TOS. Symptoms only started in April. After reading how long some suffer without a diagnosis it appears I am very lucky to have a general surgon in the family that was determined to find a diagnosis ASAP. I was referred to the Cleveland Clinic to see a specialist(again, lucky I only live an hour away after reading how far some have had to travel). Dr.Park at Cleveland Clinic confirmed surgery is best option. Dr.Park only does supraclavicular approch and he was kind enough to agree that im young(31) and he wasn't comfortable with the visable scars I would be left with because I apparently have an very larger amount of scar tissue he would have to make more than one incision so he referred me to Dr Rebecca Kelso for transaxillary rib resection. I am scheduled for Aug 2 and I am terrified(mostly of anesthesia!) They said I will go home the following morning and should be back to work in a week. I type all day at work so a week seems quite optimistic to me. Wondering if anyone can tell me when they were comfortable doing a lot of typing, I need to give my employer a realistic idea of when I will be able to perform my job in full. Also, I am wondering about sleeping during recovery...will I be able sleep flat in a bed? I tend to wake up laying on the affected side as much as I try not to, I'm thinking I should plan to sleep in the recliner for the first week?

Hello! I am glad you have been diagnosed so fast. Had surgery for mostly VTOS mid-June and stayed at home for 3 1/2 weeks. Started working again this week although just part time. I do a lot of typing every day and by the end of this week I really feel that my arm and hands are still weak and need gentle treatment. My recovery was quite fast I think and as soon as I woke up after surgery my symptoms were gone. Some ulnar nerve tingling comes back at times but nothing serious so far.

Sleeping: I had supraclaviar approach. First 2 weeks I could not sleep flat in my bed. Since week 3 I sleep almost flat and can even sleep now on my left side (had surgery on the right side). It is getting better every day.

All the best to you and speedy recovery!

Many in the past have mentioned recliner for sleeping after surgery.
Probably helps with swelling issues as well as trying to get up & out of a flat bed..

I would request as much time off and light duty as you can get, just to be on the safe side , so employer isn't planning on you at 100% before you are ready for it. You can always do full duties earlier if you are up for it.

If they have to remove a lot of scarring that might be more invasive to the tissues than the rib removal, so it is hard to say any exact recovery time frame... some bounce back and some take longer..