Hi Everyone,
My name is Alison, I am 41 years old and live in the UK. My injury is very new as it only happened on the 24th October.
I dislocated my shoulder and damaged the nerves. I saw the specialist yesterday and he says that he will operate in 4 weeks and try to repair the damage, and that I should get some function back.
At the moment I can only move my thumb and index finger properly and some flicker in the longest finger. I have some degree of feeling in the index finger and thumb and a strip of feeling under the forearm. Everything else is dead, except for the PAIN.
The pain is constant with waves and spikes of additional pain especially in my hand with added burning sensation.
What scares me is that the doc said I am already on the big guns in medication and they have to take me of it as they will need to give me that after the operation as it will be even more painful. I really dont know how anything could be more painful than this is now and i am barely coping with it. Some days i cannot stop crying all day and long for sleep to get a reprieve but sleep is near impossible.
Thank you courtney for your email yesterday.
I am so scared
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cbe411
- Posts: 1393
- Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 8:27 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: MVA in 2001, nerve graph in 2002, Median Nerve Transfer in 2004 and an unsuccessful Gracillis Muscle Transfer in 2006. I am living life and loving it! Feel free to contact me :)
- Location: Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
- Contact:
Re: I am so scared
Hey Ali,you have come to a great place to talk with others who are going through the same stuff, or have gone through it. Another site for you to check out also is http://www.tbpiukgroup.homestead.com/index_1.html They have message boards too! They also have a gathering ever summer at Squires in Newthorpe, its a great time! I got there once... hope to go back! Godd luck and ask away!!
COurt
COurt
Re: I am so scared
Ali, I am in the UK too, and am the chair of the TBPI Group charity here. I have had a tbpi for over 12 years now, and have been researching and studying this injury for many of them.
We have a very active group here in the UK as Courtney has said, and between us all, we have many years and vast experiences of dealing with this injury and the different types of treatment out there. We are also in contact with the leading surgeons over here who treat brachial plexus injuries.
If there is anything I or the members of the group can help you with, please don't hesitate to contact me. My email is liz@tbpi-group.org If you email me, I can let you have my phone number if this is easier.
Try not to worry too much...easier said than done I know!
Looking forward to hearing from you...
Lizzy B
We have a very active group here in the UK as Courtney has said, and between us all, we have many years and vast experiences of dealing with this injury and the different types of treatment out there. We are also in contact with the leading surgeons over here who treat brachial plexus injuries.
If there is anything I or the members of the group can help you with, please don't hesitate to contact me. My email is liz@tbpi-group.org If you email me, I can let you have my phone number if this is easier.
Try not to worry too much...easier said than done I know!
Looking forward to hearing from you...
Lizzy B
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admin
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Re: I am so scared
hi lizzy
thanks for your reply.The thing that is worrying me the most at the moment is that they said the pain will be worse initially after the op.
Do you know why the pain is so bad in the mornings? I am usually up from 5am as it is so painful even with the tens running.
After reading some of the posts i feel very ignorant, i do not know the correct names of the muscles and areas of the arm!!
I am under professor simon kay at st james hospital in leeds.
thanks for your reply.The thing that is worrying me the most at the moment is that they said the pain will be worse initially after the op.
Do you know why the pain is so bad in the mornings? I am usually up from 5am as it is so painful even with the tens running.
After reading some of the posts i feel very ignorant, i do not know the correct names of the muscles and areas of the arm!!
I am under professor simon kay at st james hospital in leeds.
Re: I am so scared
Hi Ali
Sorry for the late reply. You are in very good hands with Simon Kay and his team. Many members of the U.K. group have been treated by him.
Not sure what he means about the pain being worse after surgery. It certainly wasn't so in my case, and I can't think of anyone else who has told me it was worse after. But, that doesn't mean anything really as everyone is so different and reacts differently to surgery, pain killers etc.
I don't think my pain is actually worse in the mornings, in fact, for a few minutes, there is no pain at all. It's worse whenever I'm just doing nothing, like sitting in the car being driven, or if I don't have anything interesting to do.
I found that the TENS machine was completely useless in my case for the pain generated by the brachial plexus injury, but it did help with the neck pain in the early days which was caused by injuries to the bony bits of my spine at neck level. Again, everyone is different where this is concerned, but I was almost convinced that the TENS actually made the pain worse.
If you do have any concerns about anything regarding the pain or the surgery, have a chat with Proff Kay and/or any of his team. They are all very approachable and will answer any and all of your questions about it. Let us know how you get on...keep in touch :0)
Lizzy B http://www.tbpi-group.org
Sorry for the late reply. You are in very good hands with Simon Kay and his team. Many members of the U.K. group have been treated by him.
Not sure what he means about the pain being worse after surgery. It certainly wasn't so in my case, and I can't think of anyone else who has told me it was worse after. But, that doesn't mean anything really as everyone is so different and reacts differently to surgery, pain killers etc.
I don't think my pain is actually worse in the mornings, in fact, for a few minutes, there is no pain at all. It's worse whenever I'm just doing nothing, like sitting in the car being driven, or if I don't have anything interesting to do.
I found that the TENS machine was completely useless in my case for the pain generated by the brachial plexus injury, but it did help with the neck pain in the early days which was caused by injuries to the bony bits of my spine at neck level. Again, everyone is different where this is concerned, but I was almost convinced that the TENS actually made the pain worse.
If you do have any concerns about anything regarding the pain or the surgery, have a chat with Proff Kay and/or any of his team. They are all very approachable and will answer any and all of your questions about it. Let us know how you get on...keep in touch :0)
Lizzy B http://www.tbpi-group.org
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admin
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Re: I am so scared
Perhaps what the doc is talking about is the initial post-op pain that anyone gets after a stint "under the knife". For me,at that point,the effectiveness of pain killers was sketchy -at best. It would have been nice to have something that could really knock the pain down at that point, but I was way past the morphine drip by surgery time, unfortunately. Do your best, pain is what it is--sleep/and dreams are best.
Onepaw
Onepaw