Advise Welcomed

[lmscranton]

Hello - I thought it was finally time I reached out for some help. My daughter has brachial plexus from a birth injury. According to the therapist and neurologist, it's a mild case. She's been receiving OT since 3 months and is doing great. We are schedule to meet with a surgeon next month and I am at a loss for what kind of questions to ask. Her nerve re-generation is going well, but she does not have full extension of her right arm. She wears a brace for an hour a day: not much progress is being seen, but it's not getting worse. Any words of advise will be greatly appreciated.

[m&mmom]

How old is your daughter? Have you tried any other type of treatment like message therapy? I think the most important question to ask is their philosophy on treatment and if they are agressive or conservative towards surgery. If you don't agree on the basics it will be more difficult to reach a decision on a course of treatment.
Cindy

[lmscranton]

My daughter is 11 months old. OT is the only course of treatment she's had. She has good range of motion and OK strength,but the concern is her inability to completly straighten her arm. I don't even know if we should be so concerned about that even. My husband and I go back and forth on the surgery option daily. I will definatly look into massage therapy. Thanks!
Lisa

[karen r]

You might want to visit http://www.injurednewborn.com. Francine Litz has a section in the resources about questions to ask a specialist. Be sure to ask specifically, how surgery will correct current deficits...and what deficits might surface without surgery. You can ask what the different surgery options are: is there a surgery right now that would benefit your child? If you don't have surgery now, what surgery options are available down the road? You can ask how many of these surgeries this doctor has done? Are there families in your area who have had surgery with this doctor? Have you looked into a support group in your area?

Be sure to write down your questions...even if they seem "trivial." If you don't understand an explanation, ask that it be explained again. Best of luck!

[francine]

Hi! If straightening her arm is the only problem then maybe you should think about an xray to see if there is malformation of the elbow joint? We just learned recently from a post on here that elbow joint stuff is common with our children - especially elbow dislocation. So if this were the case - then bracing and massage wouldn't work. Talk to the doc about this.

good luck with your appointment,
looking forward to your update
-francine

[francine]

the dr. questions are found at

http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/drquestions.html

[TNT1999]

Hello. Welcome to the board. I'm sorry though that you had to be here. I won't duplicate all the great info. you already got here, but just wanted to add another thought. Perhaps if the splint was on for longer periods of time, such as overnight, it might be more helpful. Maybe a different kind of splint would be more effective. Checkout the pictures of different splints, such as the dynamic elbow extension splints on Francine's site -- http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/splints.html

We've never had to use an elbow extension splint so I can't add any personal experiences.

Perhaps you could take a copy of the info. from that site to discuss with her OT and with her surgeon. I would like to echo too the idea of having an xray at least done before finalizing any major decisions. Hope you get lots of support here.

-Tina