United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Pain has gotten worse, methadone not helping anymore just causing me to sweat. Drs telling me to try stimulator. I have heard from 6 people its 50/50 some help some didnt. One guy say it was a god given gift. Although only been in for month, and i have read the negatives on it. I heard that after 6 months doesnt help and machine can break. Any suggestions on surgies/technologies/pills?

What is this muscle transplant? If i can shrug a little bit and can feel in certain places on arm above elbow, can this give me the ability to flex/ curl arm at elbow, or even hand?

What can i do about fingers atrophying, there getting real bad?

Read here .... http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread.jsp ... read=10507 and http://www.aans.org/education/journal/n ... 16-5-8.pdf and there is an article in Outreach about the free gracilis muscle transfer too. Ify ou dont get this, email Nancy (nancy@ubpn.org) and she will get it to you...... Hope this helps!

COurt xx

These are questions you need to ask your doctor. There are surgeries involving muscle transfers but you may need to be the right kind of candidate for them. Your fingers curling may be helped by a splint which keeps them straightened out, again it might depend on the type of injury you have. It can help to keep straightening the fingers manually yourself.
Nerve stimulators may be useful in some cases, but as far as I know they do not help in cases where the nerves are avulsed, either for pain relief or for keeping the muscle bulked up while nerve repairs "take".
Hope this helps :0)