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Good friend with it- retired from dentistry @ 40 because his hands were numb often. Not somebody you want working in your mouth! Sometimes his hands are white from lack of blood flow but has managed to live a full life and just moderate some activities. For him he did not feel the surgery was enough of a sure thing so he has chosen to live with the symptoms.
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Check out STL's Chris Carpenter who is just returning from thoracic outlet syndrome. He had surgery about six months ago.


Actually he didn't have the surgery until the middle of July!

They went into this surgery where they removed his 1st rib with the mindset of "if we take it out, you might pitch again. If we don't do it, you're done."


It's important to get an accurate diagnosis. TOS is sometimes considered to be a little bit of a catch-all phrase that can encompass multiple causes. In order to properly overcome it, you need to know the exact cause.
I had surgery on both sides for it 1999 then 2001. It took 4 years before it was diagnosed. Both surgerys were done at UCLA medical center. Its commonly misdiagnosed because all the pain isn't where the injury is. For me it wasn't worth living with the pain after trying a scalene nerve block, accupunture and chiropractic care I opted for the surgery. I missed 3 months of work for each surgery I drive a truck and shuffle cardboard around the city lol so because of my job it took my a little longer to be healed up enough to get back to work. Good luck
Last edited by LJ3813
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Thoracic outlet syndrome

I know this is not baseball related but I think you all may have helped me figure out what I have been experiencing for the past couple of years. Two years ago I had a nasty fall when running full speed after a well hit tennis ball to my backhand by my then 13 year old. I used all my effort on my two handed backhand leaving nothing left to land on my feet bringing be down directly on the left side of my rib cage. In addition to knocking the wind out of me I thought I broke some ribs and dislodged my heart. Since then and after a long recovery from broken ribs I have had numbness and pain in my hands arms and chest. Thank you for this info!!!!
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Originally posted by CADad:
I'll echo what others have said and that is that one has to be very careful with diagnoses of nerve problems. The tests are not 100% accurate by any means.

Make sure you check up on all the options before heading to surgery.


Very good point that's why they call it practicing medicine. At first I was told I had disc damage in my neck then carpel tunnel syndrome . There are unnecessary surgeries being done because of TOS not being diagnosed at all. Its all referred pain with TOS and the symptoms usually get lumped in with a disc or spine issue.

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