Hi, in this story I want to tell my personal experience about Thoracic outlet syndrom and why you sould be carefull if you play football.
I am 99% sure you don't know what TOS is. And thats ok.
When I started with some pain in my right arm I haven't heard about it at all.
One day I noticed my right arm was bigger, I ran into the doctors room worried AF, he told me it could be some inflamation because of my work out and he gave me an order to check my veins just for precaution. I had a clot ( a thrombosis in my subclavian vein) basically the subclavian vein is the couple of your subclavian artery (SUPER IMPORTANT HIGHWAY OF BLOOD that goes all up to your brain)
Instantly I was medicated with anticoagulant pills to make the blood less dense and keep the flow going, this meant extreme caution to injuries because of the risk of bleeding yourself out.
Imagine my stress level...
A few months passed and I had to go to surgery. My first rib was compressing my subclavian vein and this was generating the traffic jam of blood (the clot) on that vein.
4 hours of surgery later the problem was solved, had to go 3 months to rehab to re establish the sensitivity on my whole arm (huge downside) because doctors inevitably have to fuck you nerve system to get to your first rib through your armpit.
Why football players? The doctor said this is a very common situation on football players, because you can get injured easily.
So be aware people! If you don't treat when necessary this things can get really shitty.
Play safe.
God bless
Fefein
Good article! I play like 3 times a week. Good to know this stuff.
Your situation is definitely extreme, and I am glad we have emergency medicine for situations like that, but I see that all the time in my office and by adjusting the rib I can usually keep it moving enough to avoid serious injury.
I can imagine that having one arm bigger than the other one can be very alarming. Good you are OK. Thanks for info!