Cervical rib removed 2009... Pains are now back 10x worse!!

i had 2 cervical rirs one on each side when i lifted my arms above my waist i had no pulse in either arm was very strange, the right one was removed cleanly no prob and i didnt even have any problems or pain after was very quick op and only in leicester hospital 3 days .great no probs since was nothing. now the left one was operated on but they had to leave the knuckle end in as it was attached to spine but they took out my top rib so that in the future if iy started giving me trouble this may relieve some pressure . and it was great for about till noe 10 yrs on it is causing me some greaf again . so they said if it gets to bad they may try taking it out from the back . but as yet not sorted, but only because i have other problems that are nothing to do with it .. sorry it a long reply and hope u can understand it. if u have a strate forward cervical rib u shouldnt have any problem gettin it sorted, i go th leicester royal infirmary they did my ops and were great . it was proffesor bell but he is now retired.

dear gloriana, thanks for your reply. It really helped me very much.

You are a very nice and kind person, thanks for your help, may you l never face any problem in future .

thanks :-)

Hello x.Stax.x , i am also having extra ribs on both sides.i m having tingling in hands, muscle spasms in throat, dizziness,ear pain,numbness in fingers since 16 months. i have consulted around 50 doctors in my city and one of them said its due to this ribs.he is homeopathic consultant n this medicines are acting slowly so i went through about 10 neuro physicians but they are not believing the rib problem as my nerve conduction tests n mri scans are normal. n today my pains are worse my carrier is stopped completely if u are still in touch with this discussions then please help. i m from India please suggest good consultant in this regard. thanks n i hope now u r completely free from this problem.

hello aarti, i m also from India and also having cervical rib on one side. Can you tell me from where do u belong to??

hello alka, i m from Nashik, Maharashtra. Please tell me your location.

hello aarti, i m from delhi. i m 20 years old and i m nt feeling any serious problem from my cervical rib. Can u tell me ur age and since when did u start feeling trouble.

hi alka i m 26 yrs old. i was suffering through neck pain since childhood but i neglected it. and severe problems which i mentioned in previous report started in feb'2011. and one more thing i would like to tell u is that the severe problems started on the day when i started YOGA class and doctor said that there was somethng wrong which hamper the extra rib. so pls be carefull during excercise n yoga. its an advice to you dear friend

hey aarti, thanks for your advice, i l definelty keep it in mind. I m feeling very mild pain from some years but it is not increasing or decreasing and also not regular. I also fancy that even if today I am not feeling any serious problem but I may have to suffer difficulties as I will grow more older. If you dont mind please keep sharing your experience it will help me a lot to tackle my problem my email id is xxxx

I hope you will soon find a good solution to this problem. God will definetly give his blessing to u.

Emis Moderator comment: I have removed the email address as we do not publish these. There will be a private messaging facility coming soon. If you wish to email someone in the meantime leave a reply here asking for the moderator to pass the address on.

HI alka, your email address is removed from reply by this forum as per their rule so its not visible to me. n don't worry i will be in touch with u through this forum.because i m suffering since 16 months n continuously praying to god that pls dont give this problem to anybody else even my enemies also because all are not able to tolerate pains. be happy dear. i m with u.

dear aarti,you are really a very kind and nice girl. Thanks for helping me. May God vanish all your pains.

Hi, I had cervical rib on my right side removed 3half years ago now and have had pain ever since. I now have permanat 10% nerve damage with my blade often 'winging'. I have been told I have to adjust my life to it now. It impacts on everything I do and all the pain killers in the world dont help and I'm still taking them just to help my sanity really. I feel like my life has changed and am unable to do alot of the things that I used to be able to do. I work full time but its becoming more difficult as I work at a computer all day. By the end of the day I'm so exhausted with the pain/discomfort that I rarely go out now. I am faced with this for the rest of my life. When the surgeon opened me up to remove the bone, the nerves and arteries were wrapped so tightly around the done they had to disentangle them before chislling the bone away. I suspect your pain is nerve pain as nerve damage is quite common after this operation, although they dont really tell you about that. I have another crevical rib on my left side but will never have the operation on that side as I could not bare to go through all this again. Please think long and hard before deciding you need to have this operation, it could change your life forever and not in a good way.

Hello.

I had my cervical rib removed 6 days ago (left side, only have partial one on right side which causes no problems)

Mine was broken - I broken my cervical rib and chipped bones on my spine when I was a toddler. Problems with numbness increasing especially over last 18 months and it was interfering with my job I I'm an emergency department nurse!!)

Since surgery the pain has been pretty awful. I was only in for 2 nights post op and have been struggling since. Massive, horrible nerve pains in elbow and hand. Shoulder is fine but shoulder blade is painful. Ended up with a 6"scar and my consultant telling me he was amazed I ever had any sensation as the nerves and muscles were totally wrapped around the broken end of the bone (one part was still attached to my spine and they cut that back to about an inch long, the broken part had kind of fallen down to my ribcage so they cut that as low add they could)

Anyway, back to my original question......is this pain normal????

Juls

Juls,

Do you have pain medication? It seems in the uk they try and take you off it very soon, but elsewhere I've been told you will need them for weeks not days(the strong ones that is).

I was in a lot of pain at 6 days, but was also still in the hospital with complications.

I found post op advice to be lacking also. There is another forum mainly Americans for thoracic outlet syndrome on neurotalk.

Take it gently, scar tissue formation can cause the same problems.

Jopo, thanks for the reply.

I'm 11 days post op now and, well lets just say its a little easier, but only a little bit!! I'm well up on pain relief, my gp has been amazing but still horrible nerve pain no matter what I try.

Guess I just need to learn to be patient and not expect it all to recover within days!! I'm not the best 'patient'.....used to being the one looking after not being looked after. Baby steps I guess, still pretty exhausted but trying to get out each day for a little walk.

Movement is ok, can lift things just quite funny watching me try to get a cup to my mouth my soon tells me.......its almost like I have to concentrate on hand to mouth action!

Anyway, thanks again for the reply

As lOng as the lifting doesn't cause pain.

Yes the nerve pain can take a little while to subside to a comfortable level. Remember your nerves had to be cut away from something, even in the least complicated case that is going to cause some pain.

I realised this when I watched a YouTube video of the surgery, it helped put some perspective on the pain, it is a pretty intense surgery. Surgeons over here minimise it somewhat IMO.

Good luck with the recovery, it can be a long road. My surgeon has advised me that the nerve pain can take a year to subside. Though I have read elsewhere multiple years.

Take care