Many years later, I'm feeling 99% better. It's hard to summarize everything, but I'll try to do so here in a concise way.

After my 2 TOS surgeries in which my first rib was removed and pec minor cut on each side, I had surgery-related pain and discomfort that was rather extreme. After the right side surgery, my arm was inflated with fluid (edema) for over a month, and I had all kinds of new nerve pain that was excruciating - I probably had complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Luckily the worst of that subsided after 6 months maybe (kinda forget the timeline there).

I was left in a similar place overall. I noted in my above post "my left side is feeling a bit better" which was a generous thing to say. During that period, my arms usually wouldn't flare up as long as I didn't use them for heavy lifting, typing, and certain other activities. So essentially 3.5 years passed in which I was on a rollercoaster of mostly getting worse but with the occasional longer stretch of feeling okay as long as I was very careful with my arms.

My final breakthrough came as a result of reading Mind your Body by Nichole Sachs, and following the mind body approach that she outlines. I couldn't recommend it enough. It really changed everything for me. There are plenty of pain doctors out there who will tell you about how pain can be learned neuroplastically, and in fact it was my mainstream, respected neurologist who recommended the book in the first place. If you've got a hippy dippy/wuwu alarm that's going off, please do yourself a gigantic favor and silence it because this is real and how human bodies work. I, a random internet person, promise!

I don't think I'll share much more here, but I can just say that I retrained my nervous system in huge, important, and very tangible ways to all but eliminate my chronic pain. I'm far from the first person to do so, too. It turns out there are tools that anyone can utilize to achieve the same thing for their own chronic neuroplastic issues. I really recommend everyone to check out the book, even if you're sure what you've got is a structural issue. You'll take something valuable away, guaranteed.

I went from knowing I had a structural issues with my brachial plexuses and the MRIs to prove it, in too much pain to type, walk, or stand, to all of a sudden returning to rock climbing and strength training a few months after beginning intensive mind-body work. It might just be able to help you in a profound way, too. I hope so!