United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Lizzyb what do you mean by pre-ganglionic injuries?
I do think there is something in what you said about the brain not having those memories in babies. I know at first with my phantom pain on the amputatyed side the severe pain I was getting initially was similar to what happened in the accident. e.g. the arm (which was no longer there) just constantly felt like my hand and wrist where being bent back and that's what happened. The phantom pain on the amputated side has settled (must take into account though that I'm on 3200mg Nurontin per pay) but I certainly can't say the same for the TBPI side.
Bye

Hi Gayle,

Have a look at this picture of the spine and the spinal nerves http://www.unm.edu/~jimmy/spinal_cord.jpg
It will give you a idea of the anatomy of the spine.

The dorsal root ganglion is a swelling containing a group of sensory nerve cell bodies. If the nerve roots are avulsed (damaged or pulled out)between the ganglion and the spinal cord, this is a preganglionic injury or avulsion. These types of avulsion are the ones that cannot (yet) be repaired directly by re-implanting into the spine

A postganglionic avulsion, tear or rupture is sometimes repairable under certain circumstances providing that there is still a stump of nerve to graft on to.

Hope this explains it a bit. There is quite a bit of info on the internet about spinal nerve anatomy, but I thought that the picture I've linked to was one of the best I've come across.

Lizzy b

Hi,
I have Right OBPI. I wonder if some of it is that TBPI people know what it's like to have 2 arms that work . They know what full ROM feels like. If you have it from birth you don't know what it feels like to move both arms ,lift a bost over your head, do a cartwheel etc. But to lose it later has to be emotionally very difficult. Pat

Hi, im still reeling at the thought that surgeries have been performed on babies with NO anaesthetic as mentioned by Lizzy, ugh! (hi Liz if you see this, im in a net cafe so cant access your board today so thought i would have a look over here).. anyways to the question in hand, i have seen some OBPI kids at a Florida picnic with very severe injuries (but they were smiling bless em) and some i couldnt notice. Also some flail arm TBPI's and myself with very lucky amount of recovery in my arm and some in my hand.
A BPI surgeon explained to me that babies nerves after trauma or surgery (which is a trauma in itself)
have much less distance to travel down the arm while hopefully regenerating. So often by the time an adults nerves have regrown down the arm the muscles may be dead hence a lot of TBPI's end up with little or no use of their hand even if their bicep etc is working. If it's a lower root injury your hand is probably shot in other words. I dont like to think what it's like for the OBPI kids to go through school etc with a disability but it can't be easy, we all know kids can be very cruel. The biggest effect of the crash for me isnt the physical injuries but the PTSD, a consultant psych told me i got it because when i hit the car fr a while iwas conscious, couldnt breathe and believed i was dying. Aparently this triggered off a response in the primitive brain with our most basic instinct, survive! And it manifest itself as delayed onset PTSD. Being medically retired at 35 also hit me hard but im now in retraining for work. I dont think the pain will ever go away from what i hear off those longer term injured but its tolerable for me so im lucky. Having said all that it must be agonising for the parents of OBPI's and i say best of luck to you all and take care,
Dave