Hello From Canada

I have TOS and will be getting my 1st rib resection done on friday. I am very nervous and don't really know what to expect. I live about 3 hrs away from the Hospital. If there is any information that anyone can give me that would be great. I do have a couple of questions.
1) How soon will I be up to go to the bathroom after surgery?
2) How long has most people been in the hospital after surgery?

I had the surgery in Sept. 2011. I was up as soon as the meds wore off. I was in the hospital for 2 days because my doc said mine was a little more involved than he first anticipated. Take the pain meds. I hate taking meds but needed them for two weeks. I took prescribed amount for first week and then cut back. Good Luck, it is a slow recovery

Here's a recent thread for another member that joined right before having surgery, the posts there should be helpful.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread162291.html

What are your symptoms & avg pain levels?
How long have you had symptoms?

Hope we can be of help.

If you put surgery or surgery tips into the search tool - you'll get plenty of results -just search the TOS forum only & choose threads or posts for results -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/search.php

Here's the main TOS page for all recent threads-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

I tried to send you a message but am not able to with your settings.

I have pain in my neck, shoulder and down my arm. My hand swells and gets cold and burns. I have had these symptoms for a couple of years.
My pain levels is between 7-9 most days, They have put me on Morphine to give me some relief as we have tried different meds to no avail.

The doctor called me today and told me to come down on thursday as he wants to give me a stallate ganglion block and see if that will help, then depending on the result he may cut the nerve on Friday, when he is doing the rib resection.

If he ends up cutting the nerve will my recovery be even long?
What is your appetite like after the operation?

Is dr thinking you have RSD/CRPS also?
Has dr mentioned that at all?
Which type of TOS do you have? The Dr should have mentioned it ,esp. if blood flow is affected -
Vascular (arterial, venous), nerve , both

Have you had time to check out /verify the Dr/surgeon for skills & experience? Up to date on the newest techniques?
How many of these has been done by this surgeon? per year or ?

I wouldn't really want to have multiple things done during the surgery unless there is a very clear reason going in.
Just because he is in there
Once some things are cut ..no going back

I've read more about those stellate ganglion blocks on our CRPS/RSD forum -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

Having a surgery with rsd already can cause it to spread, and special precautions need to be taken.
Info can be found on our rsd forum.

I really suggest a lot of reading on this forum and the rsd forum.

Make VERY sure he/she is not suggesting a sympathectomy by "cutting the nerve."