Hi, I was just diagnosed with TOS and a Cervical rib on my right side. I am contemplating surgery, but some of the stories on here are scary!

I am a professional musician and guitarist, and have experienced pain in my right forearm for over two years. It has made playing much more difficult, but not impossible. After 2 years of wrong diagnosis, (everyone assumed it was just tendonitis - and told me to quit playing for 6 months. which is impossible for a guy who plays 6 hours a day, and who's family relies on this as his income) a new doc finally found a cervical rib on that side, and diagnosed me with TOS. I have a nerve entrapment on that side and I will need to have the cervical rib and the first rib removed as well.

My life has been pure hell for the last 2 years, including trying different techniques playing to splints, medication, etc. The pain is certainly nerve related, as I had a negative EMG. My last 17 years have been dedicated to pursuing this music career (as a music teacher, performer, session man, etc. no illusions of 'fame' or anything.) including over $100,000 on a music degree. I suppose I would rather deal with this pain the rest of my life than lose my ability to play if the surgery goes wrong.

The stories about recovery scare me because there is a possibility that I will wake up from surgery and be worse off than before. The doc himself said there is prob a 5% chance of nicking a certain nerve, or making the pain while playing worse or even losing my ability to play altogether.

The doc said more than likely I will be able to start playing again within a few weeks of surgery. But there seems to be a lot of people here that have residual pain long after the surgery - worse than the initial pain that the surgery was for!

I am hoping that in two months I can play pain free - even from the surgery - but I am not seeing a lot of hope for this. My doc is a cardiovascular & thoracic surgeon - not the type of surgeon y'all were discussing.

Any help to ease my head would be appreciated! I desperately need to be pain free and want to continue a career that I have spent so much time and effort on. I don't want to have the surgery if I can't be pain free or there are NEW pains to deal with.

Thanks!