Dr Adelman sounds like a good Dr. I set up three appts with Drs closer to me but I will definitely keep him in mind. Too bad about the Dr that messed up the records- big OOPS!
And how about the Dr that says you dont have a vascular problem as he looks at your blue arm.
I'm discovering its a scary world out there in medical land and you really have to be your own advocate nowadays...
Quote:
Originally Posted by winic1
I have scar tissue from a broken collarbone, that had to be pinned after months of not healing, wrapped around the subclavian artery and vein. Not your normal type or origin of TOS.
After running through numerous local doctors of various types, got sent to my local hospital's head of vascular surgery who said "I don't believe your MRA" and "You don't have a vascular problem" (only my arm turns blue, loses all feeling and pulse...) and all my other local doctors went "Huh?", I first went to Yale New Haven, where doctor said I needed rib/scalene removal in about 5 minutes into the appointment. But said he would not touch scar tissue (so then what good is....?).
Next went to Dr. Ginsburg at Columbia Presbyterian. He said remove rib, scalenes, scar tissue, rebuild collarbone...(but what is wrong with my collarbone, did they fix it wrong...? We just do that. Have collarbone specialist....). Did not make appointment to see collarbone specialist to find out if needed, too freaked out. He was nice enough, but would have liked a bit more time and explanation. As he described the surgery, almost sounded bored with this routine. Obviously he's comfortable with it.
Looking for middle ground, went to doctor at Mass General in Boston. Said he tries a bunch of other things before going to surgery to make sure it's the right thing to do. Ran their special CT scan. Sounds great. Only he mixed up someone else's records with mine, and had diagnosis & symptoms for me that I don't have. Fortunately found out before he did anything to me. Bye bye...
Went to Dr. Adelman at NYU. After evaluating all my previous tests and some of his own, told me it was indeed scar tissue, and while he is a surgeon and makes his money doing surgery, he would NOT recommend surgery for me. Bone spacing is fine. Muscles are fine. Problem is scar tissue, and trying to cut away scar tissue is more likely to cause damage to healthy tissue (blood vessels, nerves) and there goes my arm, my breathing, etc. Recommended extensive PT to remodel and loosen scar tissue. Called Dr. in my local area (Connecticut) to find a PT for me up here so I didn't have to travel into the city. Listened. Explained. Believed symptoms I have that they could not see (cause of) during testing. I liked him. Which is not something I can say of most of the approx 10 doctors and 8 PT's I had run through before seeing him.
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