I've been diagnosed with 'Left Thoracic Outlet Syndrome' as part of a workplace injury.

I have the lovely, whole arm goes numb, whole arm is colder than the rest of me, oxygen levels are considerably lower, have shooting pains, hand goes stiff, hand swells, hand turns blue, and with any use it gets very tired, resulting in extremely nasty pain.

I've been pumped full of meds, had nerve blocks, which helped to some degree, and even had a bursectomy on my left shoulder. All of which either produced temporary relief, scaled back the pain, or did nothing...

My doctor recently went on a meltdown, which puts me in between a rock and a hard place. He wasn't much help with finding a surgeon, since he only ever gave me vague ideas of where I'd have to go. He says that I am very unlucky in that I have both nerve and vascular effects.

So I am looking for suggestions about a surgeon to see, so I can get my new doctor to send me to see them.

Sorry to hear about your experience. You might want to search the forum for Canada or National Health Service (or whatever the proper name is). I seem to remember some Canadians on the forum.

If you are paying out of pocket or have other insurance, then there are several highly recommended surgeons in the states.

Good luck,
Kelly

Thanks, I will definitely try the search function.

Well technically speaking it's 'other' insurance as it's being financed by Workers Compensation. While I would prefer to get the best treatment possible, they want to keep the costs as low as possible. Though because the diagnosis was confirmed by their own 3rd party assessment, means I do have slightly more leeway, though it still comes down to convincing my new doctor, about the worth of going south.

So I guess I should entertain the south of the border options as well. Rather get fixed right once.

I should also mention that on the third party assessment they diagnosed me with, and this is only from the preliminary results:

- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

- I might also have impingement syndrome of the left shoulder as well.

Let me tell you this, it sucks to have one hand start screaming then trying to lock up. I also have this odd one, when one spot hurt my left ear feels like someone is drumming out morse code on it. Though that one is new, just started happening this last week. Think it's also caused by the crazy amounts of stress I've been under lately.