Hey Everyone,

Just thought I would share my experience with TOS here for everyone who may be interested. Roughly a month ago I was hospitalized for a blood clot in my upper left arm and had a Thrombolysis at UPMC in Pittsburgh. I was told I would most definitely need surgery to correct the narrowing of the vessel structures in my thoracic outlet.

I somehow stumbled upon Dean Donahue at Massachusetts General and found that he is an expert in this field (I believe he told me he is co-authoring a book exclusively on the subject as well).

Anyway, I called him a few days after getting out of the hospital and he spoke with me for about 30 minutes over the phone, after which I decided to go out see him in Boston. I had an appointment about 2.5 weeks ago and I have to say, Dr Donahue is super knowledgeable and a really nice guy, you can tell he really cares about his patients and his work means a lot to him.

In my case (blod clot / now on blood thinners) and after reviewing my venogram from my prior surgery he recommended I have surgery as soon as possible. He also did I full examination of my strength and sensitivity in both arms, trying to determine if there was any other nerve involvement and how exactly the thoracic outlet compression was affecting me.

Anyway, I'm now scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning, wish me luck! I'll try to hop back on here afterwards and let you guys know how it goes.