United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

chiropractic on a regular basis and water therapy are two that I have the most experience personally with-also wanted to mention that alternative treatments do not neccessarily/ always exclude surgery-
I think Jess is the one with experience successfully treating her daughters contracture without surgery- not sure...
...Jess?
sholdnt worry about stirring any pots, if you have a question you should be able to ask it, if someone gets upset then thats on them.
TIME is also an alternative to surgery that I have found - and time, unfortunately takes time, and ofcourse, like surgery or therapy or any other treatment -it should be used in conjunction with other therapies,
alot can be gained by taking the time to do things, smelling the roses can range a child's arm, playing aroiund by climbing in the car on the way to therapy could benefit a child not happy with therapy more than therapy itself, or, the child could derrive greater benefits from actual therapy-
also- I think faith helps- and attitude, expectations, DISCIPLINE to force yourself to do positive outlook - all these things are a big part of the other part of recovery that largly goes untreated, that would be the sociological,emotional and psychological effects...
have I rambled enough?
-mary

Hi, Marnie. I sent your email address to my friend and I emailed you too. After reading Jess' post though, it got me wondering. Do you still have the same insurance that cut you off from therapy before? Do you know if they will approve more therapy? I would take Jess' advice of exploring other options too such as therapy through the school and supplemental insurance and or medical assistance. Even if you decide on surgery (and esp. if you decide on surgery), therapy benefits are going to be extremely important. The surgery must be followed by some intensive therapy for a period of time in order to maximize the effects of the surgery and to maintain the results. The post-op rehab is something that must really be considered and checked into prior to having surgery in my opinion. Typically, there will be a down-time in a splint/cast following surgery then after the cast/splint is removed, the crazy schedule begins. Just thought I'd make sure you understood that upfront. I kinda thought of your insurance problems as being in the past and I just realized that maybe I was wrong and they're still ongoing. I hope not for your sake. It's too bad we have to deal with insurance company battles on top of everything else. Take care. -Tina

Tina,
Thanks for all your help. No, I do not have the same insurance and therapy should not be a problem at all, ecspecially after surgery. Thanks for the info.

Yes, we made some great improvements on an elbow contracture that Lauren had, oh it was probably a year or more ago now, who can remember! Anyway, we used moist heat and a very aggressive stretching and were able to almost completely resolve the elbow contacture, I think she is still lacking only like 5 degrees or so, which was a great improvement over the 30-40 degrees she was lacking before.

Again, not saying this will always work with everyone but we were able to gain alot from this.

I also wanted to add that we, in the past couple, months with lauren have realized that a majority of the movements that Lauren at first appears to not be able to do are just things that we have never work with alot or that she just does do on her own much in her daily life.

One of the movements we just regained (she's 3 1/2 years) was reaching back over the shoulder with elbow bent (I think that's external rotation right?) This was amazing with Lauren. Here's the story. We went to see a new specialist and she's the one who reminded us that this is an area to work on. In the office that day Lauren was fairly unable to do this. But when we got home and I worked with her on it and we worked 1 day with our OT. And she started to be able to do it, only after about a week. It was almost like she had never done it before and didn't know that she could.

Seems like I remember a mom telling me a few years ago that her chiro had "taught" her child to do certain activities by actually showing her which muscles needed to be moved. Mary, do you remember who this was, she was a member of Tanya's group for a while. I think it was the same girl who played the harp? Do you remember her sharing this with us?

Anyway, this is just one of the movements that we've actually had to teach Lauren that she was able to do. Alot of Lauren's therapy at this point is correcting postural problems and helping move in the "normal" way. She's so functional, and I'm thinking this may be the case with Peyton, that she has developed her own movements and ways to get many things done, now she just has to be willing to learn the correct way!

Hope this helps. Good luck to you! Jess

Gotta ask!

How bad was her injury. ALaina has a bad stretch injury and at 16 mos is recovering quite well.
She can ever put her hand behind her head.

What the docs are concerned w/is the internal rotation of the shoulder and arthritis complications later on in life.

Please let me know! Thanks for sharing.

Gayle

jess, that was Patty, she...does not post here and I havent heard from her in a while, she was really into that- I believe the Feldenkrauss ?( know I just killed that spelling, sorry) method deals with reteaching the muscles how to work/function correctly also- in a formal method I guess-
Max started doing that with his hand during grocery store therapy on the cart, he stands at the front of the cart facing forward and actually is able to grasp behind his head, elbo bent, the cart, stand on the bottom and ride- he doiesnt hold the position for long, and he needs help from his back skootching the arm up but, hey, its still there and he works to do that movement whenever we go, -

Gayle, were you directing that question to me?

If so, read on, if not forgive me for being confused.

Well, hum, "how bad was her injury" that's a tough question for me to answer. Since I've never allowed the docs to do an EMG or MRI, she's never really ever been "labeled" by a profession in terms of mild or severe. Judging by my own personal comparisons with other bpi children when Lauren was an infant, I would rate her injury as moderate, but definately I think only a stretch injury. Now I have no documentation of this, like I said, I've never had it tested.

I can tell you that at 16 months Lauren could NOT put her hand behind her hear. She really gained tremendous amounts of function between 18 months and 2 years and then alot again since around her 3rd bithday.

She's never had any surgeries. We've done formal OT pretty much since age 4 months, sometimes up to 3 times a week and are now down to a once a month eval from an OT and a PT.

I hope I answered your questions. Feel free to ask any more. Jess

Nice try, Mary -- http://www.feldenkrais.com/

I thought that was what Jess was referring to, but I wasn't sure and I had no idea who it was. I guess we got it together b/w the two of us.

-T

Yes Jess I was directing it to you.

THanks for responding.

Were you recommended for surgery earlier? If so was it the mod quad?

We are in a quandry as to weather go ahead w/surgery or not. She has really great movement and can touch the back of her head. She can even hold her arm out. Now it is not perfect by far but it is pretty good. She holds her arm kindof strange and has her shoulder internally rotated. Surgery is supposed to help later on in life w/her pain w/arthritis. THis is a big factor for us but I am afraid to touch her arm as well w/surgery.

I appreciate you telling me about your particular story.

Gayle

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