Sounds like the MAC test was positive. Good luck!

Good Luck and wishing you a comfortable and speedy recovery Our thoughts will be with you.

Thinking of you, I hope all is going well.

Have you had first hand experience with Dr. Zager? I have had 2 ppl with very successful surgery outcomes highly recommend him.

Thanks for all the wishes everyone! I did have the Mac test done as well as the scalene muscle block by Sanders and both came out positive. After that I had a repeat EMG by Dr Mechanic and surprisingly it also came back positive for both arms, right one was worse. My last EMG was negative which was from Jan this year.

As for the surgery, Annest (who has been checking on me daily) said it went well. However, he did not remove my c-rib which I was concerned about since that was the plan. He did a pec minor tenetomy and then he removed a long fibrous band going through my artery and nerves, a neurolysis of my c8 and t1 nerve roots (I am not sure if he did any additional neurolysis I have to ask). He also removed my anterior and medial scalene muscles. He said the c-rib was not causing any issues and it was deep so it would have been risky to take it out and he and Sanders just did not think it was necessary to remove it or the first rib. I did get a nerve injury resulting in a winged scapula, which Annest says is getting better. He thinks my long thoracic nerves may have been stretched.

As for recovery I have not been doing very well. I have the expected pain at both my incision sites and still get occasional numbness, tingling and pain in my arm and hand. I had to stay in the hosp 2extra nights, still here because I have been ill and am not responding well to any narcotics, causes nausea, the works. So now I am on Valium, Naprosen, Lyrica and just started Vicodin and still don't feel any relief. Also on multivitamin, Calcium and Vitamin D. I just asked to be switched to Neurontin bc it used to help for a while before surgery until I developed tolerance and did not want to increase the dosage over 600g. Hopefully I get to go home tomorrow. I have instructions to walk a lot and do my PT exercises to keep my arm moving 3-4 times a day. It has been really hard the past couple days bc I was having really bad stomach pain and nausea and my legs are also very weak, I have been stumbling when I walk. I was able to shower on my own twice and am sitting here typing so those are some good things. Ok my pain is getting worse going to rest a bit. My left hurts a lot too and I have discussed with Annest and Sanders about doing my left side possibly in 6 wks if it doesn't improve with PT while I work on my right side.

Good luck with your recovery! Hope you feel better and better every day

Wow sounds tough,I hope you continue to improve. Are you going back to NY or CA?
JKL

Parbie, are you feeling any better?

Hi, I have been meaning to post since my surgery. I am 9 days post op now. I am still in pretty much the same pain I had before surgery, well worse near both my incision sites. Most of it is pulling and deep aching pain, still some tingling, but less numbness. I am not having an easy time controlling my pain since I cannot tolerate narcotics and I feel everything I am on now is not really helping. I have read a lot about others' post op experiences a while ago but to refresh my memory I am just wondering for those who have had surgery, how many weeks out did you really feel some relief? Dr Annest has had me doing PT daily since the day after surgery, just very simple ROM stuff and some nerve glides. I am doing it at home a few times a day but I was also told by my therapist in Denver to limit the use of my arm unless I am doing exercises. I am also concerned about the development of scar tissue, I was
told to massage both my incision sites to help prevent that but only after a few weeks. Has anyone been given other advice to prevent this? I see my therapist one last time before I leave Denver on Monday and right after that I see Dr Sanders for my followup since Annest is out of town.

The plan is to go to Ca for at least a few weeks where I plan to do PT with Steve at Physiotherapy Associates. Steve only sees patients once a week and I am wondering if that is enough. I know he tries to incorporate whatever my surgeon wants into my pt program but I feel like I will also need some more manualized therapy along with doing Edgelow's Protocol so I might try to find a second therapist so I can do my PT twice a week, just need to locate a good therapist in N Cal. I am also going to see Dr Ellis if I am still having trouble
managing my pain maybe he can help. Ok I am surprised I was able to type this much had a lot going through my mind since surgery but I am starting to flare up, will post back again soon.

Parbie, I am seven weeks post op. I had less numbness right away as well. I still get tingling but not as much. I still have tight muscles and do PT twice a week, pretty much just soft tissue massage. I have less pain, but a deep pulling feeling in neck. My PT says that the muscles are still real tight and will continue the massage for now. My doc stated no strength building at least for now. I can tell you that as the weeks go by, it seems like every week I get slightly better. I still have trouble using my left arm and will continue to take is slow. I think any improvement however slight is better than none at all.