Project Adam and Eve

The cervical rib bone's connected to the first rib bone...Ok, so maybe that's no quite how the song goes, but I wanted to share with you about the surgery. We met the doctor on Tuesday and were very impressed. He was very thorough and his office staff was so kind. They brought us hot drinks and cookies while we waited. I flipped through Dr. Sanders (he's the doctor/surgeon) text book that he wrote while we were waiting. I don't know what any of it meant, but it looked smart. Once he had me perform a bunch of tests, he determined that I was a good candidate for the surgery and that I did indeed have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS). He then sent me to a nerve conductor Dr. who sent electrical wave throughout my arm to see if my nerves were functioning properly. As compared to my left arm, which does not have any numbness or tingling, my right arm was not performing up to par. But, he felt the damage was not permanent yet and that he was certain that the cervical rib was the cause of my pain. Which means, remove the rib, remove the problem.
We got to the hospital very early just in case his first surgery didn't happen for some reason. They did show up, and we waited 4 hours to go back to surgery. He had told us before that the surgery would take about 2 hours, at the most 3. My surgery was 3 hours. He said that my cervical rib had formed a huge joint, that is was people could feel when they touched my rib, and that is ha attached to my first rib. So he ended up having to remove both the cervical rib and the first rib. The incision is small at the top of my neck, he just glued me together on the outside. So far everything is healing well. I am not in very much pain and I am slowly gaining normal rotation of my neck and arm. The best part though NO MORE NUMBNESS OR PAIN!
They sent me home with something called a ten pack, which Josh and I had used for therapy when we were going to the chiropractor. It's little circle pads that attach to a little machine that sends electricity to the pain, kinda an all natural pain reliever, which I appreciate, I hate taking pain pills.
Also, for good news, he told us before the surgery that the rib would be cut up in such little pieces that we wouldn't be able to tell what it was. After the surgery he said the joint was so big and in the way, he was able to cut out a big chunk. When my mom went down to the path lab to pick it up, they told her is wasn't ready and wouldn't be for over a week. As we were literally on our way out, the nurse got a call and said that Dr. Sanders was coming. So we stopped and he came up to us holding the small piece of my rib. How cool! So, for all of you guys that were curious to see it, I've got it!
Well, Josh is in AR with the girls, so I don't have much news about them. Hope you enjoyed the surgery synopsis!