United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello,

I would like to hear from anyone who has suffered a complete avulsion. I am wondering how much feeling you have in your arm. My dad just told me yesterday that he has feeling from his neck into part of his shoulder. Is this common? Do most of you have feeling in those areas? I was under the impression that the injury paralyzed the muscles into the neck.

Thanks,
Lauren

I can feel a patch at the back of my upper arm about the size of a Mars bar and the top of my shoulder and neck. These areas are hypersensitive, if someone touches me there I hit the roof. I have no other feeling in my arm at all. I have multiple avulsions but my biceps did spontaneously return after 2 and a half years. The amount of feeling I have has never changed since the day of my accident.
Hope this helps :0)
Jen NZ

Hi Lauren,

My injury was very similar to Jen's, only I am numb right up to the base of my neck. I also had that small patch on the back of my arm that had feeling yet was hyper-sensitive. Nothing in my arm ever regenerated so I finally had it amputated to save me from the pain in my neck & back that I had from the dead arm hanging from my neck. I'm glad I did it.

Susie Kaye

Hi, I have feeling from the neck to about half way down the arm. Have no feeling from there to fingers. The area from the neck to elbow is very sensitive like Jen said sometimes if someone touches it I nearly go through the roof. I totaly avulved three nerves, shredded one and had only a stump of one left. Have nerve graft August this year...regards Michael.

A big thank you goes out to all who have replied. I appreciate you for trying to help me understand this complex injury.

Do any of you who have feeling in the shoulder area also have use of that area? I am curious as to whether the fact that you have sensation there means that the nerves and muscles are still healthy.

Thanks again,
Lauren

Hi,
I have avulsed all 5 nerves and have normal feeling around shoulder. Between my shoulder and elbow there are patches that have some weird feeling, but from there down there is nothing.It is funny to see when you have goose bumps because you don't get any bumps were there is no feeling.
Even though I have good feeling around my shoulder there is not a lot of movement. I can shrug them but that was all.

I have a lot of very weird feeling in my BPI arm. Don't know if this helps you or not but, here goes..

I have always been able to shrug my shoulder, and I have normal feeling there down to just below the top bit of the scapula, but on the back only. I have normal feeling under my arm down to about midway along the biceps, around to the back but it stops about midway between the fron and back. Mostly, this bit at the back(ish) is oversensitive, but not too bad.

I have a little bit of feeling in the elbow, I can feel it if its laying on a cold table for instance. Now this is the weird bit...I can feel it if I scratch my fingernails of my 'good' hand over the palm of my BPI hand, but I feel it under my arm and down round to the back. It usually sets off the pain, so I don't do it very often!

My forearm underneath can also feel a scratching and bizarrely, only cold not hot water...weird I reckon. Something else I noticed a short while ago is if I rub hard down the side of my ribs on the BPI side, like drying with a rough towel, I can also feel tingling under my arm....I think I should leave my arm to science when I die!

Lizzyb