The Lord is my shepherd!

I just wanted to make a quick post to let you know that your prayers are working!!
For now, the pain has subsided. My arm/chest has been aching a little but the severe throbbing and shooting pains are gone. I'm trying to take it easy and make sure I don't do anything to bring on symptoms or make my arm worse. Im still overwhelmed with stress and am very nervous about the upcoming doctors appointment in Knoxville... but ya gotta do, what ya gotta do! Right?!

Thanks again for all your support and prayers!!!

Short & Sweet

I'll make this short. I'm typing one handed because my arm is really hurting today.
I finally got in touch with a TOS specialist in Knoxville Tennessee and made an apointment for December 18th.
My pain is unreal these days and i'm overwhelmed with stress. I keep asking "Why me?" and "What if they can't cure me? Will I be in pain forever?"
Who knew such a small area of your body could cause so much pain. You can only imagine how difficult everyday tasks are when using only one arm.
Hopefully I will get some answers soon and a plan for treatment!

I could really use your prayers.

Much Love, Loren

I will not settle, I want the best!

*SIGH*

My appointment with the Vascular Surgeon did not go to well. I have come to expect this. As I mentioned before TOS is very rare and difficulty finding a Doctor comes along with this. Here is my appointment in a nutshell:

I arrived 30 minutes late for my appointment, because I got lost and had trouble parking due to serious construction in and around the medical buildings.

Once I arrived I found out that my previous referring Doctor did NOT send my records over as he claimed he did last week! UGH! So I had to sit and wait while they had my records faxed over. I later found out my digital X rays were not sent over either. Figures.

Fortunately the wait time was minimal (I guess arriving 30 minutes late was a good thing). Once the Doctor came in he sat down and listened very carefully to my history and symptoms (something not all doctors due and I am appreciative of). He asked a few minor questions and briefly checked my pulse and mobility in my left arm. At one point I asked him to look at the difference between my collarbone on my right side VS my left side... his response was "I do not see a difference". To myself and anyone around me that seems absurd because the difference is very clear! My left side is sunk in and swollen, where as my right side appears to be "normal". I was annoyed by this but carried on...

Dr. B said he thinks 100% that I do have TOS, and that he is pretty sure I have the nuerogenic form (complete opposite of what the doctor last week said..hmmm). He then said he wants to send me to see his surgical partner, a Neurological Surgeon and that if he agrees with the diagnosis we can schedule surgery to remove a rib.

----------------------------------HOLD UP, WHAT?!---------------------

"Lets slow down a bit, doc!" is what I was thinking! The questions started rolling off my tongue:

Aren't you going to run more tests? His response, No. The Nuero Surgeon may get an MRI, but we'll see.

Well how do you know I need a rib removed? He says: Well, We won't know for sure until we get in there, but removing the rib will open the area up and therefore uncompress things. (This I understand but please keep in mind removing a rib is a major surgery and should not be taken lightly and certainly should not be done without proper reasoning)

What if something else needs to be removed or if there is damage to my arteries or veins? His answer to this was vague, but basically consisted of we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Um NO THANK YOU!

I was very blunt with him and explained that I had done an extensive amount of research and am fully aware that TOS is rare and that very few doctors are familiar with the surgery. I asked openly how many TOS surgeries he performs and he replied honestly....

2-4 A YEAR!!!!! Call me crazy, but thats not enough for me!!

I mentioned to him that I had looked into two other Doctors, one of which is from Knoxville and has performed over 500 TOS surgeries in the past 5 years. And another in the Denver area whom has seen over 5000 TOS patients and performed over 2000 TOS surgeries. (I found out this evening while reseraching that the Denver Doctor retired in August of this year)

After a surprised rude look, his response was something along the lines of "Well I think they do more surgeries than are needed, and you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. I assure you myself and Dr. M are fully capable of doing the surgery."

Soooo......

I do not understand how he can be ready to cut me open and remove parts of my body without so much as seeing an xray or performing any tests. This is absurd to me!

I'm not saying that this doctor is not smart or that he is not capable of performing this surgery, but I DO NOT feel like he is the doctor I want to trust my life with. So I will not be scheduling the next appointment with him or the Neuro surgeon.

Instead I have decided to contact the Knoxville Doctor and proceed with a consultation with him. Traveling will be difficult, but I will not settle for mediocre care. This is my life and I want the best when it comes to cutting me open! ;)

More to come, i'm sure...

TOS & the long road ahead.

This is going to be a long drawn out post, and if you would like to skip to the end for the point you may! ;) Just look for the RED!

As you may remember from previous posts I was always struggling with tonsillitis and chronic throat infections. Well... I FINALLY HAD SURGERY!! That's right, I sucked it up and had a tonsillectomy/adnoidectomy in September. I must say I DO NOT recommend this surgery. The surgery it self went great and I was in and out of the hospital within a few hours. Recovery on the other hand.. Hor. If. Ick.!!!!
On top of the usual recover issues, I also had a bad reaction and ended up back in the hospital due to major swelling in my mouth and around my lips. I was unable to eat, drink or sleep for over 72 hours. Once admitted into the hospital things improved dramatically. The doctor was able to get the swelling under control and give me fluids because I was extremely dehydrated. I felt 10,000 times better and was finally going to get some sleep after 70+ hours. I was still in a decent amount of pain and needed some form of pain meds, but the nurses insisted that all I could have was morphine. (They said it was the only thing the doctor approved me for) Despite the fact that I did not think i needed such a strong pain medicine, I went ahead and took ONE SMALL DOSE of the morphine. I was desperate and just wanted to sleep! .....
Turns out, I am allergic to morphine! Yites!! I began to twitch and convulse after the first dose. Hours passed and the morphine began to wear off, but the damage was already done. I finally convinced the nurse to give me a xanax so I could sleep and I was out like a light within minutes!
Jon watched me carefully throughout the night and said that my arms twitched numerous times. By morning the twitching was over, thankfully.
All in all I recovered fine and have been free of throat infections since.

BUT....
Along with my chronic throat infections I had also been suffering with severe pain in my left shoulder. This is something that has been occurring for years and I had procrastinated in seeing a doctor for. I would get sharp shooting pains in my arm as if my nerve were being pinched. For the past 2 years or so I had learned to function using my right arm more and my left arm less. I refused to lift my left arm high up or to swing or jerk my arm in any way because it would cause severe pain later on. Well, the morphine incident after surgery seemed to ruin that. All the extreme jerking and twitching did a number on my arm. Within days after it began to hurt more and more until it started to become unbearable. I'll skip the details, but basically I got my butt in gear and scheduled an appointment with an Orthopaedic Doctor.

On my first appointment with the Ortho Doc he said he suspected I had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and that my nerves and arteries could be compressed and causing the pain. I didn't question and him and at the time didn't really know what questions to ask concerning this. In my mind I simply thought "yay! he knows whats wrong with me and can fix it!" ... BOY WAS I WRONG! He started by scheduling tests such as Xrays, and an Electromyogram and Nerve Conduction Study. (basically they electrocuted my arm and stuck tiny needles in it to see how it reacted! Ouch!) Then I had an ultrasound done on my arm to determine how much blood flow I was getting in that arm.

The results were devastating. I was getting little to no blood flow in that arm with even the slightest bit of movement. My Xrays appear to be normal and the Electro test proved I do not have a nuerogenic problem... So what does all this mean?? I was wondering the same thing.

My doctor called last Friday and explained to me that he suspects I have a rare form of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (arterial) and that I am going to need surgery to fix the arteries and nerves that are being compressed in my left chest/arm. He continued by telling me that Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) is rare in itself and very few doctors are familiar with it. He said that he is referring me to a vascular surgeon for more tests and a second opinion on the diagnosis, but if it is Arterial TOS I will need to travel to one of 5 locations in the U.S. to have surgery.

I was and still am confused & overwhelmed. I have spent every waking hour I can researching TOS and learning everything I can.

To make a long story short, TOS can be limb or even life threatening if not taken care of. Yet the surgery is difficult, rare and risky. So I am now at the beginning of a long and scary road and I am asking for you to please keep me in your prayers. Please pray that God grants me the strength I will need to get through all of this and get back to living a normal life again.

I will try to keep updating my blog as I continue to get answers. My appointment with the VS in on Monday.

If your confused and want to read about TOS and what it is CLICK HERE !

Because I Can

Although I don't have much desire to blog lately, I thought i'd still give those of you that are stopping by something to look at... so here are a few random pictures.

Jon & I.

More of my handsome nephew, whom is growing like a weed!

New bedroom furniture! :) Oh how I love this KING size bed. 16 inches can do miracles for your marriage folks! heehee! (New Bedding should be arriving anyday now)

My adorbale Little Nieces/Sisters.

and our Jack O Lanterns ;)

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall festivities!

My heart aches. PLEASE PRAY!

Kelly from "Kelly's Korner" posted about the Sullivan Family who is in desperate need of our prayers. If you have not already been to this blog and prayed for this family, please do so now!

I have not had time to get the entire story, but from what I understand the Mother was battling cancer and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a few days ago. After coming home and living happily as a family of 3, something went terribly wrong and the Mother was rushed to the hospital, and passed away at 11:00am this morning. Please pray for the strength this Father will need during this difficult time of grieving the loss of his wife and caring for a newborn miracle.

Cuteness Overload!

I give you (In absolutely no particular order, thanks to bloggers pain in the butt uploading system) the worlds cutest baby boy! (okay, so i'm a little biased!) ;)