Well, I was given the choice of having surgery to get rid of scar tissue and to clip my pec minor muscle or to tough it out as long as I can and see if the scar tissue breaks up on its own. I opted to tough it out for now but after another sleepless and painful night I might reconsider quicker than I thought. Just the thought having my pec minor muscle clipped doesn't sound appealing to me at all. I make my living coaching baseball and I need to be able to use my arm so I have to do a little research on how clipping the pec minor muscle will affect how I do my job. I'm in good spirits though and make the best out of every day possible.

I'm really sorry to hear of your continuing pain. I also have scar tissue following unsuccessful surgery. I would worry that even if you have surgery to remove scar tissue, it could well form again given your job. I would be curious what your surgeon says about whether it's possible to break that vicious cycle.

The thing I miss most (other than simply being healthy) is the ability to play on my softball team and to play catch with my son. I get very melancholy whenever I smell freshly cut grass. I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to grapple with TOS and be a baseball coach. I will be sending only good thoughts your way.

Take care,
Kelly

Just so you know...we are all thinking about you during this time. It would be a very hard decision, but one only you can make. Good luck and keep us posted...we all care about you

Ditto what TOSmother said. From what I have experienced and seen this is a very difficult "disease". I am convinced catching it early and avoiding misdiagnosis leading to other surgeries are keys. I flunked both of those but still battling and could be worse I guess.

There is a 19 year old from my city who had this surgery with same doctor. He is 6 - 8 months post-op and struggling with severe pain and fluid building up in his lungs. He is living on hydrocodone and I feel so bad for him at such a young age.

I do think Dr. P is one of the best but this disease is so complex and tricky. I would guess all of the "experts" have patients who have had very negative outcomes. Everyone please keep sharing and encouraging each other. Keeping a positive attitude is crucial although I admittedly have been inconsistent in that regard as well.

Well, it has been 1 year today for my daughter! Time has passed really fast. She is doing better since my last post. The last time we saw the shoulder specialist, he wanted us to try some acupunture for her shoulder/neck pain. We have one person that does that locally and she started going to him. After the second treatment, she was feeling major relief....after four she was painfree! She is on a maintenance schedule now. She can tell that stress causes her to have flares in her shoulder and neck. But thankfully this is helping her and we will keep doing it as long as needed.

I hope everyone has a great week and a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for the update TOSmother.

I actually read this thread today, I am newly diagnosed. Haven't started treatment just yet but if I was to get surgery I would def consider Dr Pearl from what I've read about him.

I'm not sure what you've been told, but the pec minor tenotomy results in no difference at all in terms of functionality. Dr. Donahue has had MGH shoulder specialists look at patients he has operated on and they can't tell a difference.