Evening all,
looks as if the military docs are going to be sending me to St. Louis to see Dr. Thompson. I have done my research and although he is well published, the reviews of him on the public online community (not this TOS community) are not very good and it has me VERY nervous. I have researched some previous posts from you all, to see how you felt about Dr Thompson, his staff and surgery/recovery. Can you tell me what his surgery protocol is? As in, day of surgery, spend __X__ amount of days in the hospital, __X__ number of xrays to make sure you have great lung function, a drain placed, a pain pump, PT started immediately, ect??

This is just a standard, run of the mill, surgery protocol that Dr. Thompson would have told you "if everything goes according to plan, you will be inpatient.... then start physical therapy... then discharge.... and follow up in..... days."

Who's got some information for me? I do not have a current DVT, nor a found history of having one. Will he make me take blood thinners as a preventative??

I'm trying to get as much info as possible because I've only got one shot at either meeting this guy, or turning him down and seeing someone else. One shot.

Thanks! BTW- I've had A/V TOS surgery successfully on the left side, done in AZ in '2011. I have A/V TOS on the right side that has now gotten urgent and in need of the surgery. The docs don't want to send me back to AZ to have the right side done...

Do you know who the "someone else" might be if you turn Thompson down?

I can't recall who had surgery with him , I hope they respond with info for you?

If ur last surgery was successful, why wouldn't. U go back there for 2nd one?

If Dr. Thompson doesn't work out, then I might have to just suck it up and pay for my AZ to do the surgery/travel there and back. So def need honesty about Dr. Thompson!!

16rhonda- did you try posting a response??

Hope this helps, I had surgery done by Dr Thompson on oct 4th 2012 and have very good results.

Concerning protocols, on the day of surgery I was the second operation so I did not see him before the operation but one of his assistants did meet with me prior to the surgery. He and the prep staff were thorough and made sure I understood everything that was about to take place.

I was in surgery for about 8 hours and my wife was updated numerous times by the staff on what they found and how they corrected it.

After the surgery Dr Thompson went over everything with my wife regarding the surgery. I was still in recovery so I don't remember any of it.

I was kept in the hospital for 5 nights and never saw Dr Thompson during that time but his assistants made rounds twice a day and his NP was on site all day during the week.

Pain ball, drain and add'l pain meds all helped, plus I had chest X-rays every day for a week since I had some fluid in my lungs.

I was discharge but stayed in local hotel for 3 more nights for office visits, drain removal, X-rays, blood work etc.

PT met with me two days after surgery to get me up and start walking and to show me the stretching exercises that I needed to do. I also was evaluated by another PT and given other exercises to start at home. I then started seeing a local PT around mid Nov., but only after they had a consultation with the PT in St Louis who did the evaluation. My new PT had never seen a patient with TOS and made sure to take it very easy with any exercises.

Overall, I feel very fortunate to have found Dr Thompson, my quality of life is so much better because of skills when dealing with TOS.

Regis

Not sure why ur asking me this?
Look for the link on this forum to the new TOS Book published in may, I'm pretty sure Dr. THOMPSON is one of the editors.
This book was put together by 4 or 5 of the Top Dr's around the country!

16rhonda- your post was edited by Jomar after I wrote my response. I didn't see your response- only your quotes "" around my original post....

Now that I can see the responses- I would want to go back to my original surgeon, but the insurance company won't pay for it, unless my PCM thinks I should go to him, instead of going to St. Louis.

I will have the PCM's answer tomorrow on where he feels he will be willing to authorize sending me.

There is a surgeon in San Diego who works with the military at UCSD by the name of Justin Brown MD. He is a transplant from Dr. Thompson's circle in St L who received hundreds of his patients when he could do no more for. He came to UCSD to head up the TOS dept working on the peripheral nerves. Very intricate work.

He contacted us many moons ago, we met with him. He has a good bedside manner but have not heard of TOS patients thoughts one way or the other. Did a blog piece on him a couple of years ago(?)

*Disclaimer...I am not in the practice of recommending TOS surgeons for surgery sake. Patients have good and bad experiences with them all.

As for the TOS MEDICAL TEXT BOOK that just came out you can view several pages on Amazon.com. Yes, Dr. Thompson is a contributor as well as many other surgeons, MD's and PT's. Dr. Donahue is also highly recommend by patients. Below is the url on the text book I blogged about
http://tossociety.org/blog/.

I had surgery with Dr. Thompson in June 2012, and I had a very positive experience. My surgery involved removal of the first and cervical ribs, removal of 2 scalene muscles, and repair of a subclavian artery aneurysm. My experience was much like Regis' - 7-8 hour surgery, 5 days in the hospital, and 2 extra days in the hotel attached to the hospital for follow-up visits, drain removal, PT evaluation, etc. I had no complications from surgery.

With Dr. Thompson and his team, I always felt like my care was being managed very well. Everyone was very familiar with TOS and his protocol. My pain management was good (pain ball, narcotics, etc.), and I felt confident in the decisions that were made about my treatment. Like Regis said, my local PT consulted with Dr. Thompson's PT to make sure I was doing everything in line with their approach. It was hard work, but overall my outcome has been very good. I was off work 4 1/2 weeks total, and there were some rough moments in there of getting my strength back, dealing with the emotional aspects of not being able to do what I was used to doing, etc., but overall I am very pleased with my decision to have surgery and to seek out Dr. Thompson. He was able to pinpoint my problems and had a very sound plan of how to give me the best outcome.

Edited to add responses to your questions:
I think I had two chest X-rays prior to leaving the hospital.
I had a drain placed at the time of surgery that was removed 6-7 days post-op.
I had a pain ball which was removed at the same time as the drain if I remember correctly. I had a pain pump (morphine?) for the first 3-4 days and then they transitioned me to oral pain meds (Hydrocodone if I remember that one correctly and OxyContin) which I was discharged on.
The only blood thinner I was on was Lovenox injections while I was in the hospital. I did not take any before or after that.
I was seen by PT while I was in the hospital just to get me up and moving around, very minimal movements/stretches, etc. I saw their PT who is in a separate outpatient clinic within the same hospital complex 6-7 days post-op to get me started on their PT protocol.

Where do u live? Dr Donahue in Boston does not order pt after tos surgery. He does give u like 5 ex.to do 3-4 day for 1 yr. To prevent scar tissue. He says these are extremely important.