United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

James has a proximal humerus fracture, very top of the bpi arm right below the shoulder. It cant be casted but hes in a sling with it bound tight against his chest. We are going back to the drs. in 2 weeks to see if its healing and if not, possibly surgery. Right now, as far as the bpi, what James had going for him was his good shoulder and deltoid function since his nerve grafting. I will contact his bpi specialists about this but I remember some of you all breaking your bpi arm and was wondering about how things went as far as healing, loss of function and regaining function etc...

Thanks.

Priscilla,

I'm so sorry to hear about James. I hope he is not in a lot of pain.

I am OBPI but I thought maybe my experience could help. I fractured my bpi forearm. It got hit by an elevator door closing and since I have osteopenesis in the bones in that arm, they are more prone to fractures.

It did eventually heal but it took much much longer than anyone expected. Eventually they had to do ultrasound treatments on it three times a week to increase the blood flow and aid in the healing. The decreased circulation, I guess, inhibits the healing process.

Nancy Birk
UBPN President

Nancy, Yes, I remember you getting it caught in the door. I also know that it does take longer for things to heal because of the bpi. Thats why Im thinking that in 2 weeks before he goes back to the dr. not much will have changed (hope it does though) enough at least to put off another surgery. Ive already contacted his bpi specialists so they can coordinate whatever needs to be done and when. James is just now getting over breaking his foot AND leg and then we find out he has a leg length discrepancy and now this...boy, when it rains it pours sometimes. His pain levels are up and down, hes taking some meds, seems to be helping some but its still there, you know how it is with bpi. I told James about you getting your arm caught in the door and sometimes things like that just happen out of the blue, so hes not feeling like hes alone in anything happening to "the arm", others have dealt with similar situations. Thanks for responding.

Priscilla,
I sure hop this heals well for James and htat he doe not need any more surgery!! How poopy!!

There is a guy on the UK boards that r ecently broke his BPI arm too! How bizzar!!

Keep us posted please....

Courtney

G'Day Priscilla,

It's Jamie from OZ, I shattered Jack at the 'Surgical Neck' of his humerous which is the part where the bone thickens as it goes up to the Shoulder.

It took 10 months before they were happy I had healed satisfactorily. I was in sling 24/7 only for 6 weeks though

Hope all goes well

Cheers Jamie & Jack (LTBPI)

Hi Jamie, Its been a while since Ive seen you around. Hope you are doing ok? James is in a sling 24/7 also. Say it took you about 10 months to heal??? Thats rediculous. I knew it would take alot longer, but I wasnt expecting that. Hopefully it wont take that long. Was your break bad enough that the doc ever mentioned anything about screws, or was he just determined to let it heal on its own? Not quite sure what the pros and cons of it all is there. I guess well find out in 2 weeks when he goes back to his doc.

Priscilla, my daughter broke her arm at the surgical neck of the humerus. It was a compression fracture meaning that it broke and the the humerus got pushed INTO the humeral head. The head was at quite an angle. We had to let the arm hang so that gravity would pull the bone out and it did just that and the angle resolved as well. But it is two years now and if you feel the area of the fracture you can still feel inflammation (an area that is very hot) and my daughter still has pain. This is two years later! The good part is that the area that was broken is highly calcified now which was an unexpected twist. We are using nighttime electrical stimulation to try and resolve whatever is left to heal. She lost all of her function and it tooks about a year for that to return but it never all returned. She has about 60% of what she used to have. Hope James heals well. I would check out the ultrasound. I will, too.