Is that Dr Mark Ray from Greenslopes PH? and nobody is a bother to others, we are all here to provide personal experiences as a support mechanism when all others come up short. A lot of it is for the mental health aspect as well which surgeons and PT providers don't care to mention because they have no experience of the debilitating affects and the lack of empathy really messes with your head (personal experience and opinion there).

You have not told us if you have had the standard brace of tests and images taken, but if you read through my original posts, I've mentioned how MRIs etc are also to dismiss theories as well as confirm them. For example, my Doppler ultrasound was a waste of time (I thought) because the Venography showed where the blockage was perfectly and also showed that excessive workload placed on nearby veins to take up the flow. The Doppler showed the exact time of blockage occurring when I raised my arm, my surgeon needed to know.

Don't let anything you read here put you off. Looking out for your best interests in getting the most from tests and images is important and if you have two ribs fusing, your issue requires more care. As LiveLoveandTrust and I have said, if you leave it longer, other vascular issues WILL arise, that is advice from our surgeons, we dont make that stuff up.

Has Dr Ray discussed the two methods of entry? Armpit (or axilla) usually for the simple ones and has minimal disruption to nerve bundles and generally results in a quicker recovery (apologies to Marc from Orange County ) then supraclavicular, from the front above and below the collar bone (clavicle) for the bigger jobs. Mine was the second and i have been quite slack in updating my progress on my own thread. (I will post a CT Scan soon that shows the result in glorious 3D).

Can you tell what scans you have had done and what they looked like?