Hi- I'm new here to the community but I felt like I had to reply. I have suffered with TOS/Bracial, cervical plexopathy x 15 years after an MVA.I am from South Jersey and will say that THE BEST Doc for TOS is Dr. Robert Schwartzman from Hahnamen University Hospital in Philadelphia, I have been to Dr. Togut once but decided not to have surgery at that time. My saving grace has been a top notch physical therapist in Medford NJ named Mark Butler he works with Novacare and specializes in TOS, Mark has made it possible to maintain the last 10 years. He is the best in his field and is referred by Dr. Scwartzman. I suffer from chest wall pain, epigastric pain, arm shoulder pain, weakness numbness, swelling, RSD, the works. It is a life long miserable injury. The above professionals have made it possible for me to survive this and really know what is causing my severe pain and disability.
Hope this helps some....

Hi. I am also new to this site and was hoping to get some advice or even support from others who may be in my shoes. I have been having severe upper or thoracic back pain for years. I also have lower back problems (two bulging discs, transitional vertebrae, facet sclerosis, sacralization and Degenerative Disc Disease). However, I recently found out that I have a right cervical rib. I found this by getting copies of all of my medical records and reading through them. None of my primary care physicians ever told me about this even though I have been complaining about my back pain for a long time. By the way I was going to Air Force Base clinics and I didn't even have a doctor for a primary care person I had a nurse......Anyway about a month ago my right arm went completely dead I lost all strength in it. This is when I went to my PCM and she took some neck Xrays to rule out a herniation in my discs. At this time I still didn't know about the extra rib and neither did the PCM. It came back negative but I said I still had the symptoms (of cousre)...This is when I started to read my medical records and found the extra rib report. So when I called to leave a message with pcm they said to make another appointment and I then told them that all of the pain and symptoms are probably from the extra rib that I found myself in my own records. I told this lady that I wanted an MRI and also to see a specialist because this was ruining my life from being in pain. She told me I had to deal with my pain and that the PCM does not have TIME to read my records! Can you imagine!!! This really upset me and now I am finally getting off base to see a real doctor...just waiting for that appointment now. I feel like I am back at square one and I am still in so much pain.

Hi caligirl,
I copied your post here to a new thread so we can welcome you better.
here's the link to it-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread55207.html

Welcome Waggydog! sorry I'm late getting around to welcomes.