United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everyone! I just got back from seeing Dr. Spinner at Mayo and he gave me the best diagnosis I could have hoped for. He said my shoulder paralysis was directly related to the surgery they did on my fractured left femur after my wreck. He said that sometimes the surgery itself is a noxious stimuli to the body and it oftens settles out in the deltoid area. He said he has one patient that has had three unrelated surgeries and wound up with this dang thing each time! What luck for that man. Dr. Spinner was very confident and showed me in the EMG report that there are more nerves firing then there were 2 months ago even though I can't see any improvement. Dr. Spinner said that in 1% of the cases it runs in the family. I asked if it was a positional issue of maybe being placed on my right side during the surgery on my left side, and he said if that was the case I would have awakened and known right away something was wrong. So, praise God for his blessings. I can live with this thing now that I have a firm diagnosis.
I will continue to pray for the best for all of you and count myself as very lucky..You are all amazing people. Good luck, Mark.

Great news, Mark. I look forward to seeing the bp team over Thanksgiving. I feel confident in the surgeons, but your diagnosis reinforces it!

That's great news, Mark!

Mark, Congratulations! Another bulls-eye for the Mayo team. Do you just sit back & wait, or do different therapy, or what? Will you go back to Mayo for future EMG's or handle that locally?

Keep us posted,

Ellen

Hi Ellen,
I am to return to Mayo in 6-9 months for another EMG so that they can show me that the nerves ARE waking up even though I might not be able to notice improvement. Dr. Spinner said that electrical stimulation or acupunture won't help but to continue water exercises and stretching exercises. He said it might appear these help, but it would be entirely coincidental. I felt lucky to be seen by the Mayo team. They said over 20,000 work there. I was impressed. Have a good week, Mark