Deb.... I'm glad you found us, but sorry you need to be here.
Since the rear-ender that kicked off all my spine stuff, the most common symptom I suffer from is my 'inter-scapular' pain... sounds like yours. It feels like I've been hit with a baseball mid-way between the scapula and the spine... just a dull ache... constant bruise that never goes away and is sometimes very limiting.
We don't hear too much about thoracic issues because they are so much less common. Your t-spine, T1-T12 is defined by the vertebral bodies with ribs attached. This extra structure makes this area much less mobile and much more protected. However, when there are problems, getting to the discs is much more problematic. In the past, they had to do a thoracotomy... crack your chest and go in through the front. While the t-spine problems are much less common, they can be very problematic because the structure of the spinal cord in the t-spine more delicate... like in the cervical spine... not more durable like in the lumbar spine.
In the 90's, John Regan pioneered a new technology that made t-spine disc surgery much safer and less traumatic. Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) allows the surgeon to gain access to the thoracic discs through a few small portals put in the patients side. Instead of a big long incision and cracking the rib cage... rib spreader... moving other organs out of the way... VATS will be done through maybe 4 smaill incisions, maybe an inch or so long. A plastic portal will allow the surgeon to work inside your chest. One will be for a video camera. Another for a light source. A couple more for tools. They will very gently deflate the lung and will perform the surgery while looking at a TV monitor... very cool stuff.
A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to see Dr. Regan perform a VATS procedure. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
Deb... the symptoms you described do sound more like cervical issues than throracic ones. Do you have a current cervical MRI? We get rear-ended and have symptoms that may be resolved in a few days, weeks, months. But the damage to our c-spine kicks off or accelerates the degenerative process, especially at C5-6-7 (for rear-enders). (All the "I'm not a doctor" disclaimers belong here... )
I hope you can find something that helps. Let me know if you'd like to contact Melanie... she's up in the frozen north too.
All the best,
Mark
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