Finally Seeing a Thoracic Surgeon and I’m Terrified
Hi everyone,
I’ve had what I think is SRS for about 13 years, but not a typical presentation. Mine is almost entirely related to where my ribs meet my spine. I have some pressure and had a rib sublux in the front and actually am currently feeling pain and pressure along the front right now but have about four ribs misaligned and accompanying back spasms all the way between my scapula and spine on the right.
For years this was just “that annoying thing” where I would go to the chiropractor and get fixed up. Then I started needing some acupuncture. And orthopedic massage. Then PT (thankfully my PT understood my hypermobile ribs).
But as I’ve hit my 40s, it’s gotten so much worse. Back muscle spams that last 9 months despite treatment. I’m two months into PT right now and haven’t even gotten to strength training because of the unrelenting spasms. I got an orthopedic massage to release the muscles which worked… and then three other ribs shifted higher up.
I’m also extremely active, I do aerial for fun and sometimes compete. The ongoing spasms made it so my scapula doesn’t sit right, which shoved my shoulder forward, which caused an impingement that has deeply weakened my shoulder and stopped me from doing half of what I am capable of doing in my sport.
And it’s not even the intensive activity that triggers the slips. Picking up a bag of laundry was the first slip, and more recently I’ve had a rib slip in my damn sleep because I was stressed out and tensed up.
I found a website linking to SRS thoracic surgeon specialists in the US and fought for a month to get a referral for an appointment. Now I’m seeing an underling in two days, who may call in the specialist or reschedule me to see her.
Along the way I had a trusted sports medicine doctor gaslight me, tell me it must be a disc (MRI said otherwise) and told me to get a breast reduction. I had a PT discharge me because she didn’t know how to treat me. I had a chiropractor gatekeep PT or even seeking the opinion of a surgeon.
Now I’m here. I am not familiar with my options for surgery. If anyone knows and can share, please do. And any words of encouragement would be a huge help. I’m scared to death this doctor visit will flop and I’ll have to start over.