My 16 year old daughter who has been swimming since she was 5 , was just diagnosed with "Venous TOS". At the Dr's advise she stopped swimming in Dec., her arm has not been swollen since or discolored. We are giving her an aspirin every day the pain is not too much if she doesn't use her arm. But when she plays her violin for two to three hours her arm shoulder, neck and arm hurt.(She is also in Orchestra). We saw a vascular surgeon a few weeks ago, he is recommending the removal of the 1st rib, and a ballon to open the vein. He says that she should be back to swimming in 4 to 6 weeks. He says she is at high risk for blood clots, that is why we need to consider the surgery. Has anyone who has had "Venous TOS" surgery under the arm recovered so soon, without complications? Has anyone just waited to see if "Venous TOS" would just get better without the surgery? I need to try to make a decision soon, but not sure what to do. Need advise. Thanks

Hello & welcome,
I moved your message from the RSI sub forum to the TOS form, just to be sure you got more replies for your daughter.

Was it competitive swimming, with lots of training time?
The drs didn't suggest stopping the violin also?
At least until symptoms & pain get controlled ,and after full recovery from surgery if that does happen.

Since she is young she might bounce back quickly, but then again, I'm sure neither of you want take a risk of any long term chronic issues.

It might even be a good idea for her to consider some alternative hobbies and activities that aren't repetitious like swimming & violin are.
The static postures of holding the violin & playing repetitively is like a double whammy.

Please be sure to find a very highly rated surgeon & one that has done many of these.
Be sure to get second opinions.
Has there been any other testing to better pin point where the compression is vs just doing the surgery & hoping that fixes the problem??

Has she had any expert & advanced PT to see if that helps?

And has there been a MRI to check for any extra cervical rib or other anomalies?

some of our sticky thread with good info
Drs & PTs lists -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread135.html
useful info-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

It probably wouldn't hurt her to try the corpse pose from yoga.
Is her heard forward of her body , posture wise? same with shoulders , rolled forward or hunched??

If so, working on getting those relaxed and back into alignment with the rest of the body might allow more room in the areas that tend to get compressed & crowded.

Some do have anomalies from the norm, sometimes more detailed testing & imaging will show it , but sometimes it is only found in surgery.

Hi there, I'm also a swimmer (but with nTOS) and while I don't know much about venous TOS, 4-6 weeks after a rib removal seems very optimistic. I'm not back in the water because of further complications, but I wasn't allowed to even start kicking until the 8 or 9 week mark. Just my 2 cents..hope everything gets better for your daughter!

http://surgery.wustl.edu/TOS_Kathleen_McClure.aspx

Folks with strictly vascular TOS seem to have the best results, even full recoveries.

A full recovery is also more likely for people who are younger and athletic. This was mentioned in a youtube vid interview of Julie Freischlag, and I've seen it anecdotally in articles covering people with TOS.

Nevertheless, she may have to choose at some point between swimming or orchestra if she doesn't get back to 100%.

She might also consider a routine of gentle stretches, breathing exercises, basic yoga, etc. to do before and after orchestra to help align, stretch and relax her body. My routine is around 25 mins and I do it every morning.

Good luck.

Where did you have your surgery? By which Dr., are you back to swimming without any complications?