Hi there!

Sorry you have to have surgery... Did you have a blood clot? I had the same surgery and it went well. My advice for you is to take it easy when you get home - its tough to sit around when you are used to being active, but give yourself some time to heal, you wont regret it. And find a good physical therapist so you can quickly and safely regain your strength.

It took me about a month to start to feel really good after the surgery - and about two months before I felt like I had the same strength in my right arm and shoulder (where I had surgery) as I did on my left and my motivation was that I wanted to resume my sport really bad too, but I was almost 20 years older than you when I had surgery. So I would suspect that you should heal up pretty quick.

Google pitcher Aaron Cook from the Colorado Rockies - he had the same thing as you and I do and he still pitches for the Rockies - like its no problem!

Best of luck to you and please let us know how everything goes for you. I would like to hear about your recovery process as well. You will be in my thoughts and prayers two days from now! Keep in touch!

Anna

Oh and one more thing you should know... If you are having the surgery due to a blood clot, which I suspect you are since you are a pitcher, your doctors will probably put you on blood thinners (Coumadin) for while afterwards and they wont allow you to participate in any sports where you can cut or bruise yourself - which can cause dangerous internal bleeding - but you should be able to go to the gym and run to stay in shape once you get the okay from the doctor, but it adds a little time to the whole recovery.

Another thing I wish I had known when I was recovering - they have you on a ventilator during the surgery which really effected my breathing when I started to try to get my heart rate up when working out afterwards. Make sure you use the breath measuring device (I dont know what the real name of it is) when you are at the hospital right afterwards to build up your lungs and it also helps with avoiding phomonia, which is the real reason they have it there. But when you get home and can lay flat on your back take big deep breaths for about 5 minutes twice a day. Seriously, about a week and a half after surgery I went for a walk, just a walk, and was panting like I had just run a sprint! So, I wished I had known...

Have some button up shirts to wear when you get home - its hard to get a t-shirt on! And last but not least shave your legs and armpits really well before you have the surgery - you wont be able to do that again for awhile.

Again, best of luck and keep in touch.

Hearing about the Colorado Rockies pitcher makes me feel a lot better. I can't postpone the surgery because I can't waste time getting back into my softball routine and Ive been having constant pain for the last year or so. . . But we have researched a lot about TOS and the surgeon I will be going to. He's suppose to be one of the best in the country so it gives me some relief. His name is Dr. Thompson out of St. Louis, MO. This surgery seems to be the right thing to do and definitely the last resort, after months and months of physical therapy; I suppose Im just nervous considering its going to take place so soon. Thank you for all of the support

It's good to hear that you did the researching, I was worried about that part .

Phys therapy
Just don't rush yourself during the healing process.
Make sure you have some expert PT people and do the ROM routines and everything for short sessions many times a day when dr OKs it.

If you seem to be having any problems during PT and they don't adjust things so it works better for you -don't be afraid to ask for a different therapist or go to another place.
There are good and bad out there and you only have one body.
I found I got better PTs with each change, plus I learned a lot from asking questions and watching what they did.
{I didn't have surgery , but many sessions of PT for RSI type of TOS}

Be careful when driving or riding in a car because a few got re injured quite soon after recovery due to accidents.
Just in case you are tempted to go riding around with some one that might be a bit reckless or inexperienced.

Best of luck and let us know how you are doing when you can.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Dr. Thompson did Aaron Cooks surgery. I have heard great things about this doctor and think you are in good hands.

Good luck with your surgery - i really hope that things turn out good for you and that you can get back to the pitching in the future!

Take care
x

Hey how did your surgery go? I had it done in Nov. 2008 and recovered pretty quickly condsidereing everything I've been through. I'm an athlete and played basketball, volleyball, softball in high school and basketball in college. In a very bad car accident 2 weeks before my sophomore year and now suffer from occipital headacahes and neck problems. Accident believed to have caused the TOS. Well I hope you are back out on the field real soon. Good Luck!!!!

Christy