United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

hi guys, about a year ago i had an injury to the posterior cord from a nurse anesthesist botching a scalene block. i was devastated, i lost deltoid and rotator in my right arm. i was afraid i would never function normally again,and the pain was terrible.
i read this board from time to time and it helped, but i still had little hope. browsing one day, i found dr. nath on the web, and scheduled a surgery with him. it has been almost 6 months now, and i am 80% NORMAL, i have total deltoid return, including muscle mass, and the spinatii are getting better all the time. i cant throw a baseball as hard as before, but thank God thats about all i can complain about. i am writing this to give you hope, i used to have dreams my arm worked again and would wake up devastated. now i wake up thankful! i cant say enough about dr nath and the work he did. i am a medical student and i will be going back to do a rotation with him, he is a brilliant physician and good man and if any of you have any questions i am happy to field them. please do not give up hope. God bless!!!

Hi my name is Michael Perry, and i too have a paralyzed right arm. you said you can now throw a baseball? that would be a dream come true. if you could please give me contact information for the doctor that did your surgery i would be the happiest person in the world. I thank you for help and i hope i can have a succesful recovery like you.

Michael

Hi my name is Michael Perry, and i too have a paralyzed right arm. you said you can now throw a baseball? that would be a dream come true. if you could please give me contact information for the doctor that did your surgery i would be the happiest person in the world. I thank you for help and i hope i can have a succesful recovery like you.

Michael

Hi Jeff,

I think it would be very helpful if you explained a bit more about your original injury. I was wondering for instance why you were having an interscalene block in the first place.

Was it used as a diagnostic tool to test whether you have TOS? (thoracic outlet syndrome)

If so, the way TOS is treated is quite a lot different from the way that a TBPI is treated surgically. I think I am right in saying most people who post on here have a trauma related injury, including various elements such as avulsions, and your post could cause much confusion.

Incidently, from what I have read over the years, people who have had a scalene/brachial plexus block, for any reason, have said that the effects of it were completely gone after about a year.

It's very hard to visualise how surgery of any kind would have helped what happened to you. I would be very grateful if you could email me with more details liz@tbpi-group.org

Liz B

hey guys,
the mechanism of my injury was this: i was undergoing a routine acromioplasty to fix a rotator cuff injury. the nurse anesthethist, for want of a better description, damaged the brachial plexus by breaching protocol and administering the block after i was under... then, during surgery, the physicain assistant let my head fall off the table! so it is hard to say if the injury to my brachial plexus was stretch or mechanical, or a bit of both. but for 6 months i had NO shoulder motor function, and lost alot of sensory function. i am the first to admit thatmy injury is nowhere near as severe as some people, but i was devastated to lose the ability to use my dominant arm, it just hung there...dr nath did the surgery out in houston and found alot of scar tissue choking the nerve. he cleaned it up, no graft required, and within a week i could get my arm over my head,and now the only thing i have trpuble with 6 months post surgery is reaching in the back seat to get something while driving. i am so thankful for just having a right arm again to use. please do not mis-understand my intent, many injuries here are not fixable, but i wish i had been able in my despair to read a post and have some hope, thats all. if i can answer any questions for you, please email me: jqdowis@hotmail.com God bless!

michael,
dr naths web site is:
www.drnathbrachialplexus.com
he does many types of peripheral nerve surgery, and he did a plastics fellowship as well... i have had the chance to sit down with him a few times and i can honestly say he is a great guy, and terrific surgeon.
jeff

Jeff,
I'm going to do something that I don't usually do. Normally when I read a post like this I have the same reaction as Liz. But after thinking about it, if it helps just one person to be pro-active and seek help that they may not have otherwise than who knows? Lets say three people seek out Dr. Nath, and one of them has scar tissue choking a nerve, has surgery and gets some function back. And let’s say that that one person originally had a bonehead for a neurosurgeon like I did. That would be a good thing. I guess the point I'm trying to make is there are some very good doctors who can help us in some cases. We should seek them out to at least verify weather or not they can. If I had not gone for a third opinion, I would still be waiting for my "stretched nerves" to heal. The third doctor I went to knew I needed surgery and sent me to Dr. Tiel. But that was 12 months post tbpi, 15 months before I actually had surgery. If only I had sought him out sooner, the results would have been much better. Whoooa..I almost fell getting off my soapbox! Okay, enough preaching. I hope I made a valid point without upsetting anyone (Liz, sorry, you know I love ya..don't hate me)...Karl...

thanks karl,
thats all i was trying to do. i wish i had read my post when i was going through it, maybe it will help someone. i certainly didnt type all that for the fun of it! but if one person reads it and it helps them/gives them hope/causes them to seek another opinion, it was worth it. God bless!

Well I'll be the one to speak up.
After reading your post and the + & - to go with it I have started seeking yet another opinion. I have been told by a local (non specialist) and by Dr Shenaq that it will heal "sometime". But I am now 1 year in and I feel that I am still losing sensation and the pain is still too great to think that I am getting any where close to that magic date those two docs think I will heal. So I am taking all the dr names I find here and try to do my homework and find someone who will atleast really examine me and give me their opinion.
Holding on to "HOPE" Shanna

THANK YOU JEFF! You don't know how badly I needed to read your posting. My son is a 16 year old baseball player. He injured his shoulder about 12-14 months ago during spring training. I took him to the local "specialists" and was told it would resolve on its own. It has for the most part, but he still has slight winging and marked weakness. We saw Dr. Nath yesterday after I stumbled across his website about 2 weeks ago. Surgery is a difficult decision but it appears to be something proactive that we can do to help him. He is scheduled for surgery April 1. Could you give us info on recovery time and if your activity was limited?