Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Helped by Nerve Surgery
Dr. Tollestrup helped Tina with pain issues.*
Tina suffered for many years before she met Dr. Tim Tollestrup, who performed nerve decompression surgery that changed her life. Tina is sharing her story in hopes of reaching other people like her.
Tina injured her shoulder back in 2002. This resulted in an injury to the right brachial plexus leading to a neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. She works as a hotel reservation specialist which requires her to be on the telephone and computer all day long.
Following the original injury, Tina developed severe pain in the right neck, shoulder, arm and hand which she described as “constant, sharp, breath-taking pain.” She also started experiencing numbness, tingling, and burning pain throughout the right arm, and stated that her arm started to feel like it was swollen and heavy all the time. She developed severe loss of strength in the right arm and hand. The pain would be especially bad at night making it impossible for her to sleep. Prior to having her nerve injuries treated appropriately, she went 15 years without a good nights sleep and was always chronically fatigued as a result.
Eventually, the pain became so severe that it started to affect her heart. She developed severe tachycardia with her heart rate climbing as high as 180 at rest. She even started to show signs of enlargement of the heart. She said that she even wrote her own will because she became convinced that she was going to die at any moment due to the problems with her heart.
Tina tried the usual treatments with no success. Physical therapy made her symptoms worse. Multiple rounds of injections in the cervical spine had no effect. Finally, two orthopedic surgeries on the right shoulder did not relieve the pain.
Dr. Tollestrup diagnosed her as suffering from a right neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome with additional nerve entrapments in the right arm.
After a series of three separate nerve decompression surgeries, Tina’s nerve pain is completely gone. Her heart rate has returned to normal and she is able to sleep soundly through the night again. She is back at work again and able to use the phone and computer all shift long now without experiencing severe pain in the right arm like she used to.
If you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain, call Dr. Tim Tollestrup to schedule a consultation. He can help you just like he helped Tina and hundreds of others like her suffering from chronic pain.
*Disclaimer
We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.