article with Dr. P in it --- about baseball pitchers and Dr. P says that he has a high success rate with TOS surgery with athletes.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/...tlet-syndrome/

Is Dr. P with texas vascular associates -- ph#: 214-821-9600? Does he work for Baylor? Should you set up the surgery with TVA or Baylor? Does he take insurance from out of town? I live in California.

I have 4 weeks off in December -- I wonder if that is enough time to recover before I start back up with work and Nursing school. I spoke to the secretary at Dr. P's office and she said that people can do light work during their 6 weeks of PT after surgery (I am skeptical that she knows what she is talking about). Otherwise I will have to wait til next summer when I have 3
months off.

Does Dr. P allow people to talk to him on the phone or do you have to have an appointment for him to answer some of your questions?
Thanks for any info.

I am glad you're doing better Losinghope and please let us know how your appt goes -- Thanks.

Yes, he is with Texas Vascular Associates and you can set up your appointment through them. If you get your insurance information to them, they will let you know if it is accepted. I never talked to him personally prior to surgery, but I didn't ask to, either, so I'm not sure how that works. I did talk to him several times after surgery, so I bet it could be arranged.

I went back to work on light duty after 5 weeks off, but the first few weeks were kind of messy - sporadic flare ups caused me to miss (or leave early on) several days. However, prior to surgery, my pain had gotten to the point where I was missing work anyway! To me, both work and nursing school sounds like a pretty heavy burden to take on four weeks after surgery, but every person is different.

Losinghope:

If I remember correctly, your appointment with Dr Pearl was yesterday. How did it go? Are you doing lots better? Did he release you to do more things?
Thanks in advance for any info you give us.

Have a great day.

I did have my follow up. Dr. P said everything looks great from surgery, checked that my pulse is present on that side in all stress positions, examined the incision site and checked my lungs, all systems go. The first question he asked is if I'm feeling better than i did prior to surgery, and the answer is still a resounding Yes.

He wants me to continue the at-home PT and said I've got a ways to go with strength-building - partly from the normal degeneration from five weeks doing absolutely nothing post-op and an additional 8 weeks of light duty at work and relative inactivity otherwise, and partly b/c I've probably never used my upper body correctly, always trying to compensate for discomfort/pain. But here's the important part - I am allowed to start "easing into" resuming "normal" life.

For me, the best part is that I got the okay to get back on my horse - he said at this point there's no reason falling off would be any more dangerous than prior to surgery, but to take it easy and expect to be sore, especially once I get back to more percussive movements. He said these kinds of jarring motions (also mentioned jogging and dancing) would be the hardest to resume. Of course I hightailed it to the barn (just to walk around a little, honestly!) only to find that my horse has come up lame - guess he wanted to extend his vacation a little longer... but I suppose that will give me a chance to do a few less-strenuous activities first and see what that brings, and not set myself up for failure by leaping first into the activity that caused the most TOS aggravation.

Naturally, I'm anxious to see how things are actually going to go - am I going to have uncontrollable pain and flare-up? - and especially to see where I'm going to stand with the left (non-surgery) side - has it been behaving better because it's gotten to rest, too, or because freeing up all the stuff on the right has decreased the strain on that side? I'll admit I'm really scared that once I try adding activity, I'm going to end up in just as much pain as I was in before surgery, on one or both sides. But I suppose there's only one way to find out...

That's great news Hope! I'm sure your horse will get right back to normal in time... Just like you sounds like Dr P was impressed with your progress. Congrats!

Romans8:

Good luck tomorrow on your surgery! Please keep us posted. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. My daughter has surgery on December 12 and the closer it gets, the more nervous I become! She is also using Dr Pearl. Good luck!

Same here, Romans8! We'll be thinking of you!

Hi, Losinghope,

How has your week been with less restrictions? Do you still have flare ups on the side that you had surgery on? Well, in a little more than a month, my daughter will have surgery with Dr Pearl. She is past ready and I get more nervous by the day. But your post have been very positive and I just have to have faith. I know that I don't want her to live in pain forever....

I'm still looking for post from Romans8. I haven't seen anything recent. I wonder how he is doing. He should have had his surgery on Monday.

Hope things are going well for you

Well, I overdid it a little on Sunday and paid for it on Monday; had a little bit of a flare up but, surprisingly, it wasn't near as bad as I thought it might be - my worst pain area has always been the medial scapular border, and while I did have pain in that area, it felt more like the ache of myofascial pain than the burn and stab of nerve pain. I've been adding a little more exercise and activity each day and I'm doing all right - actually have had more soreness in areas that had nothing to do with surgery! Still being very cautious after Sunday/Monday, and still haven't gotten to ride - horse has to have his stifle joint injected at an equine specialty facility that is a couple hours away which means I have to wait for my trailer-er to be free, then he has to be totally rested for a couple of days. :-(

I'm glad your daughter is ready; hopefully you will be too, by the time the actual Day rolls around. Rest assured that she is in good hands - the best, actually!

I'm hoping Romans8 is just taking it easy and/or is resting so well on pain meds that he's not inspired to post yet. I really hope he's doing well and will get us an update soon!