Hello Good People,
I am new to this site but not to this injury...
I have a BPI injury which occured in February 1998.
On a weekend in 2/98 I was on US Army Reserve duty and my unit was out on the firing range all day long.
Came to back to the barracks, went to sleep (long day).
I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't move my left arm....
Over the course of the following months I went thru 2 physiatrists, 2 Neurosurgons, tons of PT, 4 EMG's, 3 MRI's, 3 Nerve Blocks, and loads of other testing and forms of treatment...
The sad part is I got the feeling from most of the physicians that because they couldn't identify a specific problem that they believe I was either making
it up or was just a bit crazy (I had no alterior motives, legal/financial or otherwise, than getting pain free and being well).
I had worked in healthcare practice management for
over 15 years and I had seen people labeled by the
physicians I worked for.
I was very much bothered by the Physican labeling of patients because they (the physicians) couldn't Identify that persons cause of pain....
Over the years, I told many of the patients to keep searching for the right physician who will help them (even if my practice physicians couldn't or wouldn't)..
It was very prophetic that I would end up in a similar situation myself....
Anyway, in June 1999, I met a Neurologist named Dr.
Robert Schwartzman (Chairman of Neurology of Tenet Health System--Hahneman Division) in Philadelphia.
Dr. Schwartzman specializes in BP Treatment.
I started treating with Dr. Schwartzman at that time.
We tried some different meds and other forms of treatment but he believed surgery would be necessary
(I definitely agreed due to not only pain but paralysis and other problems which I was dealing with).
Dr. Schwartzman recommended me to one of his former
students named Dr. Stephen Whitenack (Chestnut Hill
Hospital)in Philadelphia....
Dr. Whitenack was excellent...
I had surgery completed on 9/10/99..The surgery was:
"Left supraclavicular brachial plexis dissection with
total anterior scalenectomy, resection of aberrant C7
pleural band, meso-epineurolysis of brachial plexis, lower and upper trunk"..
The nerves and muscles in my shoulder area were a disaster insofar as tears and scar tissue (I kept my rib which I was very happy about).
From my OP report, I appeared to be in sad shape.
After the surgery I had extensive PT and as of today
I have full use of my left arm and hands (with some tingling but not numbness)....
It's an absolute win in my book cause I can use my arm (even if it's were I have to limit how I use it--example--no heavy lifting).
The downside is that I still have significant pain in my shoulder and neck area's.....
Since the surgery I have tried a specialty chiropractor and I am presently working with a deep tissue massage chiropractor...
The downside is that these treatments help early on and then they stop working (usually within 4 weeks).
I have been thru many types of anti-inflammatories
(Good Old Ibruprofen has been & still is working the best)but I am having only limited success in decreasing
my overall pain level...
I have tried to keep the pain medicines down to a very
low level (Hardest Pain med these days may be a very occassional Darvocet) cause of potential addiction
problems (I have seen too much of this occur working in healthcare).
Thats about it insofar as a general discription of events and the related surgery.
I will tell this, this problem will most likely never go away...Please know it is very damaging to your psyche and your mental state (it especially affects your loved ones as well even though you may not be fully aware of this effect).
I have been a very self motivated person throughout
my life (as a soldier, as a teacher, as a manager and
now as an insurance claim person who absolutely loves living life) but this problem is even more than I could handle on my own.
My primary Doctor (a physical medicine Physician) recently prescribed Elevil for me(Anti-Depressant which also helps lessen nerve damage pain)& it feels
as if a cloud has lifted from over my head (not totally but it's enough to let me sleep thru a full night and not feel so down about my future).
Please be sure to consider this side of you life and
your condition.
I hope this e-mail is helpful to you (sorry it was
so long but it was helpful to me as well to talk about this condition with people who understand what its like).
If I can be of any help (phone numbers, meds, whatever) please e-mail me at
Mcdclaims@aol.com
Thank you,
Mike Duffy