I saw Dr. Angle yesterday. He's impressed with my progress and said I'm probably a week ahead of any of his prior patients. He's cleared me to return to PT and we are planning to repeat the surgery on my right side at the end of May.

He did not agree with my theory that the neural adhesions were caused by the plexus rubbing across the 1st rib. He stated that the adhesions were likely just a result of years of chronic neural inflammation and edema. He said that my costoclavicular space was extremely tight. He said he was able to remove 100% of the 1st rib giving me plenty of space now!

While I do believe the supraclavicular rib resection with full scalenectomy is the most complete "single" procedure available today, it wasn't a viable option for me geographically (I did not want to travel by air to select a surgeon).

I firmly believe the transaxillary rib resection with partial scalanectomy was the right procedure for my case. We don't think I will need full sclalenectomy down the road because there was no scalene hypertrophy. With Dr. Angle's minimally invasive transaxillary approach (with arthroscope) and my rapid recovery progress, its hard to argue otherwise.

There is no one size fits all surgery/treatment for TOS. So please don't take my experience as the TOS gospel as all of our cases likely differ.

I'm glad you're doing so well, Marc--yay! Is the numbness completely gone?

I wish. Still have numbness in the arm and grip weakness in the hand, but steadily progressing day over day. Dr. Angle expects this to last for a few weeks based on the post-surgical inflammation from the neurolysis.

Today is my the two week anniversary of my trasaxillary left-rib resection and partial scalenectomy. I am so pleased with my progress so far. I still have numbness in my arm with some elbow tenderness and grip weakness but I'm told this will take a few weeks to resolve due to the neurolysis and subsequent inflammation.

I did get a little overconfident by stopping the Norco for a day and I really felt the arm pain. I'm feeling good now taking just one Norco 5/325 twice a day (I was taking 2 5/325 4 times a day post surgery). I was able to drive and take care of some errands yesterday with no ill effects. I restart my PT next week and should be getting my surgery date for the right side tomorrow.

I definitely overdid things (including washing and folding two loads of laundry that night) and set myself back (arm pain and hand weakness really increased). I'm back on Toradol for a couple of days and I'm feeling back on track. No more overdoing things and back to resting most of my days away!

Hi Marc, I was just reading your earlier posts. I am interested in your voice loss. I have been having trouble with my voice for the last 6 months, I assumed it was due to a reccurring sinus infection, but am now wondering if it might be a TOS symptom? Can you give any more details about your voice loss?
Thanks,
Anna

When my TOS had really flared up I would lose me voice very easily. If a phone conversation lasted more than a couple minutes, I would have to get some water and call the person back. My massage therapist specifically asked me about my voice on my first visit to her. She said she had seen this with multiple TOS patients with a lot of neck tension. I don't remember losing my voice since my TOS surgery, and I've had some lengthy phone discussions.

Loss of voice here too. I was originally dx with a rare type of laryngeal neuralgia at Stanford. He was wrong!

Much like Marc, I could not hold conversations for more than a few minutes. Now after 2 years of hands-on therapy, I can talk mostly without problems.

Anne,

I went to this new therapist and she did some hands on therapy, I am really feeling beaten up and sore as she had to work a lot of knots out as I have not had any hands on for a year. But I could actually sleep for a few minutes on both my sides which I thought was awesome. I have only been able to sleep on my back for the past couple years. Thanks for recommending manual therapy. I am hoping it might save me a trip to Dr. Thompson.

Someone on the forum, I think, Tossucks, wrote that "His Post Op care is horrible". Do you know which surgeon he mean't? Donahue or Thompson?

Stos2: Not to deviate from Marc's suffering in Orange County , I'll answer your question in the Thompson thread.