[LA31]

Hi, as many of you know, I am Annie. My long but hopefully successful story is that I was diagnosed with whiplash after two car accidents in 99 and 2000. I had episodic back and neck pain on my upper right side, neck,, shoulder, and ribs, for the next eight years. Usually, the pain was not bad enough to prevent me from working, but it did get very severe at times.

In October 2006, I turned my head to the left quickly when the phone rang in the morning and woke me up, and I felt a sharp pain where my right side of my neck meets my shoulder. Ever since then, I have been debilitated and running from doctor to doctor. Got every test that you could possibly imagine. Finally, in January was diagnosed with TOS. Tried physical therapy, shots, acupuncture, and pretty much everything else you can imagine. Have been unable to work, drive, and was pretty much bed-riddden since December.

Finally decided to get surgery with Dr. Sanders in Denver three weeks ago. During surgery, Dr. S. found a 1 cm long extra cervical rib that was pressing against my C7 nerve root in my spine. No doctor had seen this extra rib in any of my tests. However, I did have three abnormal EMGs showing abnormalities in connection with the C7 nerve. Dr. Sanders removed that extra rib and also performed a scalenectomy and a pec minor tetonomy.

It was and continues to be a hard recovery but I am doing so much better. I cannot tell you how happy I am. I will continue to post on this site in the hopes that my story will give others hope and also that they can learn things from my case to help their medical case.

This site and the wonderful people on it helped me get through the really hard times and gave me some incredibly helpful information.

As always, feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss my case. I hope this information can help others.

All my love, Annie