mucker- did i mention my constant headaches...and that I can't stand to be w/o ice pack? BTW if you are having headaches I totally recommend a cranoisacral massage (i got one friday).

also, i have had a very deep aching feeling all through my forearm and elbow that I suspect is related to signals travelling on nerves where they haven't for a long time. It has been getting a little worse each day rather than better, so I suspect I am in for some real fun, there. I used my tens on it for a while the last few days, it helped a little, but I don't see the end of pain meds in the next few days or anything. If it makes you feel any better I am taking 3-4 10mg opanas a day with a 5mg oxycodone every 3 ish hours on top to keep my good attitude . I have also added 2 advil on top of that here and there. If I forget one or am running late to the next dose, i am well aware of it.

anyhow, keep your chin up, as it does take a while for the post op swelling to go down enough to know if you have had some real improvement. I never really did see significant improvement from my May 21 surgery till two weeks ago when I got the cortisone injection on my swollen nerve....definitely it all takes time. Possibly my overall self is feeling better because of this, too. Also, I am comparing my present pain to the pain after that surgery, and that surgery was BAD.

I might call your surgeons office and ask about the color changing and burning...but I did get a lot of the tingling hands and nervy symptoms that I had never had previously in the few weeks after my first surgery. They eventually calmed down and went away when the swelling did...at about 4-6 weeks. I also get funky hand symtoms just from the bruising where the IV was....Are you taking and advil or other anti-inflammatory? You aren't supposed to take them long term, but my surgeon rec'd them to me for two weeks after my first surgery. Different assisting doc this time didn't tell me to take any...so I guess it is debateable. I found them to be helpful, so maybe you want to ask about it if you aren't already on them.

Last surgery I was all for the heating pad...it always made me feel comforted and like it was helping increase the circulation. This time, my incision just burns, and I have the deep aching, and the weather is really hot here, so somehow ice just seems like the best thing for it. I also have a terrible pain right at my breastbone and in the back where the rib used to be connected. I like to keep ice paks on that as well- not really really cold ones...just cool paks. it is definitely a personal preference tho.

well, i am certainly rambling. I just hope you don't think I am not hurting just cause i sound happy. I mean, I am feeling about how I expected to feel, which is 'in a lot of pain'. But since it was what I expected, I am OK with it and happy....does that make sense?

I am very sure that you will come through this very well. Definitely just give it some time.



Johanna

mucker, honey, you are doing just fine. if you reread ihtos' post i think you will find that what she is telling us is that it turns out she did not have TOS to begin with!!!

so the surgery doc sanders performed on her was not even, technically, a TOS surgery, but an outpatient procedure for what she DOES have, which is a condition called 'pec minor syndrome'.

OK, we need to make her change her poster name to IHPMS!!! the girl is an imposter, folks!

and i think if you ask johannakat how her FIRST first rib resection went... well, she might tell you she was feeling waaaay worse than you are feeling right about now, mucker... she was due for a break on that second one being a little bit easier to bounce back from, believe you me.

but still, i could swear she posted somewhere that she overdid it over the long weekend and is paying for it dearly, if it makes ya feel any better!!! hahaha

my point is that we are all so different. different ages, different types of TOS, different occupations, different surgeons, all sorts of factors go into it - when was it dx'd and by whom, did you get PT, was it the right kind and for how long, what is your emotional/mental/spiritual state, do you have a good support system, pain management program, etc. and on and on and on...

really does no good to compare, one to the other. i know it's hard not to, though! you are making such a great contribution to this forum and you have a wonderful fighting spirit, barb. i know you will do very well with your recovery from this very difficult surgery. and your surgeon is tops, you chose well.

this is not an easy thing to go through. you are strong. you won't necessarily know for quite a while what your true results are either (damnit! i hate to wait, too!) - but the real comparison, the one that means something... will be between how you were BEFORE vs. how you are in like maybe a year AFTER THIS IS ALL OVER.

it's natural for you to be feeling like you've been hit by a mack truck right now. that's a quote from dr. ahn, i think (johanna's cutter!).

you just hang in there and do what you're doing. you are amazing.

alison
"Be Brave"

yes..it was the d@mn groceries for family of 5 that did it...

and I won't mention the instinctive grabbing the 2yo so she didn't get clobbered by very big wave at beach yesterday...ooooooooops.

Hi Mucker,

I hope that you can reconcile your issues....I was literally feeling run over by a truck for over a month. I felt as if I would not get better. My pain was a major issue but acute as opposed to chronic. I can't express enough that you can't compare your healing period to anybody else's.

We all heal at different rates. I feel that you need to take it easy on yourself for one and on your healing for two. You are you and only you can gauge your healing by your own experience and your own pace.

DON'T OVER DO IT whatever you do....little incidents like sitting up in the chair are going to happen...so no worries about that but don't do more than you can do....you are your own best judgment...so go easy on you and your efforts!

take care
love and hugs,
Victoria

Yep thats what the good doctor said.....HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IT IS TOS. I was in total shock. I didn't know what to think. But I had 5 others diagnose me with TOS? Vascular/ neuro .
Dr Sander's remarks to me were "let's keep our fingers crossed" . That is exactly what I am doing. Several of his patients that had pec minor release ended up going back for the scalenectomy's and or rib resections. Do I really have to change my nickname now to IHPMS? instead of IHTOS ( I hate TOS ) IHPMS sounds like premenstrual syndrome...but i do hate that too !!

hahaha guess you don't do anything just yet, right? i would hope like crazy that richard is right and that all those other guys had it dead wrong, though... wouldn't that be GREAT?!?!?!?

and even if it did turn out, after you've healed up nicely from the pec minor tenotomies that the good doc sanders so expertly performed there in denver for ya, that some residual TOS sx returned...

who is to say those could not be dealt with, with the right kind of bodywork/postural and PT/OT program, together with all the things you will have learned along the way to do for yourself at home, ihtos? because now that your pec minor muscles have been freed up, if dr. sanders is CORRECT and they were part of your main problem to begin with well, it all flows from there.

so even if you do have TOS, it could be very mild and you may not ever need surgery for it if you follow a good bodywork/PT/at home program from here on out... make sense?

but i'd say the fact that you got such an immediate relief reaction from his procedure is a VERY good indicator that he was right on the money, myself! i love the idea that you DON'T have TOS (but i don't want you to leave us, don't get the wrong idea, OK?) and, obviously, the key thing to do now is not to rely on any surgery to "fix" things, but to follow that procedure up assiduously with the best damned program you can find to get and keep your now healing body in wonderful shape.

i know dr. richard sanders likes feldenkrais for his patients, and with their national network, finding one close to you should be fairly easy - still, be sure to interview a few to find a good "match" if that is the way you choose to go (i don't want to assume anything here, ihtos).

my current PT is married to a feldenkrais practitioner. so even through i'm on medicare, which i don't think will pay for bodywork of any kind, i suspect she is sneaking some stuff in there for me - just because it's the right thing to do for my TOS. and i so appreciate that, too, because when i get flared up (like i am right now-) sometimes the only things i can do come from programs like these: diaphragmatic breathing exercises, studied slow neck/shoulder/arm movements, etc. and i cannot tolerate much else.

but no, i sure wish i could say you definitely don't have TOS based on what doc sanders said to ya... probably too early to tell though. here's hoping you don't - i would not wish this nonsense on my worst enemy, ihtos!

time will tell. if you recover fully from the pec minor tenotomies - and find that you have little to no sx on either side - then i believe that will be pretty strong evidence that sanders ID'd the correct syndrome, though...

and it began with a 'P' - not a 'T' - you lucky duck, you!

alison
"Be Brave"

Hi Ihtos,
I agree with alison....as usual....lol....however, it is important to say you are in less pain so that says a lot!! If this is the beginning as Alison says then it is important to know that you are feeling better.

In my quest for doctors (of whom I saw a great many--at least 14) I had a vascular surgeon tell me that it was my Pec muscles that were causing my pain and nobody would do anything about it so go and live in pain!!

So at least u were believed about your pain and something was able to be done about it......so SLOW down and keep your name I LOVE it!!

Sometimes labels are misleading!! Pain says a lot and if you as Alison says are feeeling the relief ......go with it and see what happens then one step at a time!!!!
Live in the now and appreciate what is going on!!!!

lots of blessings and hugs,
Victoria

Sorry i never got around to posting last night but i went to have my shower and when i went to pick up my shampoo i don't know what happened but i ended up in so much pain i couldn't believe it and i cried for quit some time. I ran out of pain pills so i had to wait till to day when i seen the doc for more. We where chatting about the pain i am having and i asked about the nerves if they would eventually heal so that they would not bother me any more. She said that i do have permanent damage but i well have to wait to see just how bad it well be. She said that if i could have gotten the surgery right away well then i would have had a very slim chance of permanent nerve damage. Any way now that i have my pills back i am feeling a lot better. Sorry about the last post i was just feeling sorry for my self. But thank you guys for helping me feel better and i shouldn't have took it for granted that you girls where not hurting but i did not realize just how you where feeling so thank you for letting me know but i now feel bad that yous are not feeling as good as i thought yous where feeling oh i just pray that the three of us feel better soon. And ihtos don't you dare change your name i like it and if you did lets face it someone else would grab it right away because it is a cool name then we would be all confused because we know you by this handle then we would forget and think we are chatting to you and it would be someone ales. Well i think i am back on track i hope i don't have to many more of those pity parties ha ha. I well be talking with my psychologist next Monday so i can take my feelings out on her that's what comp pays her for so have a good evening all bye and chat later.

Its the eighth to day so that makes it 13 days since surgery and my strips started to fall off yesterday. Now there all off and it is not very pretty scare and at the end near the chest seems to be harder then the other end near the back. So now it is time to start rubbing it with some vitamin E oil and see if i can't get it to soften up a bit i know already i well have to really take my time because it is so tender i am not sure if i well be able to get the one end to soften up very good i can only hope. The spot on my upper back arm that had a strange feeling and not much sensation seemed fine yesterday but it is back to the way it was after surgery. And for some reason the spot in my back is really bothering me right now well actually most of the day. Other then that not to bad i should be getting my puppy tomorrow i can't wait to bring my chihuahua (Chico) home. I well have my days busy with him so it well make the time go by faster then sitting alone all day Well time to go chat later

Mucker,

have a wonderful time with your new baby.....and they are babies....I am 33 with no kids and my cat..10yrs old and I still call her a kitten.....she is my baby for sure.

Pets know when we hurt and need a hug or a little lick on the cheek. The are unconditionally loving and are always there to listen to the good and the bad and the best part is they won't tell anyone or complain to you!!!!!

Have fun and enjoy every min even when Chico pee's on the floor or on your clothes or watch out when the clothes get chewed......need I go on???

Have a great time!!!
Love and hugs to you and Chico..

I have always wanted what I call a chewy-chewy-wa-wa. I love them.....hugs V