United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi

I had a horse riding accident on 9 Jan and was left with a dislocated shoulder, broken shoulder and nerve damage. My local hospital mucked up my operation and told me to go home & wait 8 weeks to see if the nerve damage recovered - if it didnt I was told it would be permanent.
Luckily for me a friend encouraged me to get a referral to royal national ortheopediac hospital, Stanmore. They discovered that my first operation never worked and did the operation again last Friday. They also performed a brachial plexus exploration and discovered that the nerve was still intact. As a result I have been told that the nerve is just heavily concussed and I should regain full movement in my hand by late summer. I am still in a lot of pain and because of this I doubt that I ever will. I am struggling to come to terms with the accident and feel heartbroken that I cant look after my 2 young girls as a mum should. Has anyone experienced this type of injury, and how long did it take to see some improvement. After reading some of the messages I know I should be grateful that it wasnt worse but I am feeling really depressed and cant see an end to this nightmare. I hope someone maybe able to offer some words of encouragement.

Thanks

Hi Liz... welcome to the nut house as some of us like to say around here. Im sorry to hear about your horse riding accident and the inital bad luck but glad that you are on the right track. Being that you went to Stanmore, I take it you are in the UK. We have a few peeps from there that still post here. They also have a website with message boards that you can check out too. They are at http://www.tbpiukgroup.homestead.com/index_1.html and the message boards are http://pub28.ezboard.com/badultswithbra ... usinjuries Check them out too! my injury is worse, I have the hand and thats aobut it. Everyones injuries are so different. The pain can be a true nightmare! Try to deal with it, easier said than done. There are different things, pain docs, and a pain mgt think at Stanmore I think... Lizzyb can be of more help there I am sure. Good luck, hand out here, and at the UK site and ask away with quesitons!

COurt

LizF,
I am sorry to hear about your injury. The important thing for you to know is, you are going to recover. Think of your injury as a temporary set back. The pain is going to subside.
Just keep up with your range of motion exercises as your doc perscribes.
Mike

what do you mean mike i thought bpi was permanent?

BPI's differ from person to person. It depends on the extent of the damge to the nerves as to what type of return of function you will get. Usually with traumatic injjuries, paralysis is permanent, but if the injury is very mild, a great deal of function can return.

COurt

Terry,
The recovery of a TBPI depends mostly on the root ganglion. An injury at the roots, or preganglionic, is permanent. The only alternative to this injury is nerve transfers where nerves are rerouted to add some function.
A post-ganglionic injury, where the nerve root is not damaged, has more possibilities of recovery through surgical intervention by removing scar tissue and grafts if required.
Sorry to steal your thunder Court.
As you know, it can get depressing reading these message boards. It's important to know that without avulsions, your chances of recovery are greatly increased. Also, remember that many of those that have recovered from this injury, no longer visit this board. I personally know two people that have regained at least 90% function from a TBPI. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP LIZB.

Mike

Thanks everyone for your messages.
Mike, you said that you know 2 people who have regained 90% function. Do you know how long this took and what sort of feelings did they start to get in their hand/arm when things were improving. would they be willing to receive an email from me?
I have been told that the nerve was not damaged but had blood around it and it was compressed between two muscles. The surgeon removed & re-attached the muscle to release the nerve. At present I can wriggle my fingers,and bend them half way. I also can raise my forearm from my elbow. Until I start physio on my shoulder I will not know what else I can do. Does this sound positive?

Definately sounds positive. Especially with the movement in you hand and forearm. Did your surgeon tell you where your injury is? Sounds like c5-c6 trunk like me. I had the lower two trunks released from scar tissue and a graft on the upper trunk. I haven't talked to the two guys I mentioned, but will try to contact them.
Mike

I forgot to add, the recovery time for the first guy was around 6 mos. The other said about a year.
Mike

Liz,
I couldn't move my hand for almost six months, but after two months I had the very slightest flickering. My hand is by no means what it used to be, but it's much much better than no function at all. I have good grip and use, but no fine motor control for smooth articulation and function. So if you're getting movement already, that's great! I avulsed C5,6,& 7, and crushed C8 & T1. So I had no shoulder, chest, or arm function from the injury. Some biceps was returned by nerve transfers, but an arm that could lift my 130 lb. sister over my head can barely curl 4 lbs. now, so things are different. Sounds to me that you have a great chance for good return!

I don't have lots of ideas for aiding neural regeneration, but I did do hard core accupunture for 6 weeks, five days a week, after my surgery, and my Doctors said my nerves were re-growing at an exceptional rate, but you never know what causes what. There are neural supplements out there, I know people with Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's use them with reported benefit. Here's what I took, Neurosol by Metagenics (peripheral nerve support). Don't know if it worked, but I'd eat my step-mother's cooking if I thought it worked, and believe me that's not easy...

http://www.metagenics.com/products/cata ... sp?pid=109

If I were to start all over again, I'd look into laser treatment. Here's an excerpt of the below link, that has some interesting info...


"Shimon Rochkind is a world renowned Israeli neurosurgeon who has pioneered techniques for nerve regeneration and transplantation. In this writer's estimation, Dr. Rochkind is laser therapy's most likely candidate for a Nobel Prize. He has used laser therapy since the 1970s, successfully treating many cases of nerve injury and paralysis.

Dr. Rochkind presented the results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of patients with peripheral and brachial plexus injuries that had occurred from six months to several years prior to treatment. His conclusions were that even in a patient population such as this, in which injury has been present for some time, laser therapy improved neural functioning progressively and led to greater functional recovery.

Dr. Rochkind reported that laser therapy has an immediate protective effect on injured nerves and increases their functional activity. In his experience over time, it helps to maintain neurological activity, prevent scar formation and inhibit degeneration in motor neurons following injury while significantly promoting axonal growth and myelinization."

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archive ... indge.html

And here's a link to the CareCure forum for folks with spinal cord injuries. It's a great resource of information and current research. This link is about the laser therapy...

http://carecure.org/forum/showthread.ph ... ial+plexus

best of luck,
Christopher