I'm Robyn in Florida. In short 2 weeks ago I started gave pain and stiffness in my right shoulder. I thought I slept on it wrong. The next day my right arm had swelled up. I had severe pain in my arm for a couple of days. I ended up at a vascular surgeon who did the vein test and found clots. They unclotted me in the hospital and I think did a veinplasty for residual clotting after s night on heparin and in ICU. My surgeon told me all clear in upper arm, still some clots lower forearm. Went home on lovenox injections. This all happened very fast and I am scheduled for surgery Dec 14. My pain resolved but I am still having sufficient swelling and discoloration in my right arm and hand. Arm is achy and tight. I want a second opinion and going to call Dr Thompson. my dr explained a lot to me but now I have so many more questions. He said there is a window of time 2-6 weeks after this episode to have this surgery. Why is that? Why am I still swollen and tight if the clots were removed? What is the true recovery time for the surgery? I have an office job and really can't afford to take more than 3 weeks off. What questions would you ask of dr Thompson? Has anyone had surgery with him from out of town? Thanks!

I am set for surgery with Dr. Thompson Dec 11. I am traveling from Florida to St. Louis. Has anyone ever traveled out of state for the surgery? looking for advice when having this surgery out of town. what to bring, hotel room recommendations to make recovery easier, etc. If anyone has had surgery with him I would love to hear your experience. Thanks

A few have travelled for TOS surgery.
You might find past posts & info by searching posts here - using his name as the search term -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/search.php

I do hope you have tried many other therapies and options if possible.

I traveled to Tucson for my robotic rib resection. My wife and I drove 17 hours each way. You can't fly following the robotic surgery because of the fresh incisions in the chest cavity. It was a miserable drive home but I survived. You want to make sure that you have exhausted all other options before entertaining rib resection surgery. There are a number of risks involved and once done there is no going back. Hopefully your angiogram can help confirm where the source of compression is. If you do proceed, I would highly recommend a Kodiak ice machine from Bregg. You fill it with ice and water which it pumps through the wrap. You will also want comfortable clothes that are easy to slip on with minimal arm movement. I wasn't able to lie down in my hotel bed so I just propped myself up with a mound of pillows.

Hello,

I am wondering how your surgery went with Dr Thompson?

I have been emailing him the last few days to get some insight into options I may have for my arm.

Same symptoms but, I was kind of blown off 10 years ago when it occurred. I was 22, didn't know any better then to just believe they had my best interest at heart.