United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi
Our 18-year-old son was in a cycling accident Aug.10, fractured collarbone and tbpi, no delt, spinati, bicep or rhomboid.

I'm pretty new to this forum, found it thanks to EllenB. I had done a lot of my research by the time I contacted her, and then she and Chris Janney kindly filled in all the gaps. Also a public thank you to USACycling and consulting orthopod Dr.Eric Heiden for hooking us up with the Mayo BP clinic.

I want to thank Chris and Ellen for their help and support - it made a huge difference. When we went to see our son's NS yesterday, we felt quite calm and prepared. Our son is sched. for surgery here on Dec.12.

We are in Canada, and it's a real challenge to get info on docs in the public health system. But with my research and Chris and Ellen's input I am cautiously optimistic that our NS here is comparable to the best in the US. Nevertheless we will go to Mayo for a second opinion on Nov.27/28.

Hi there,

I am also a fellow Canadian who has a TBPI, I was 15 when i had my accident in December of 2001 and had my surgery 3 months after. Where abouts are you having the surgery done? I had mine in Calgary but the doctor who did it has moved on to Australia. I do believe though the doctor who assisted is still in Calgary though but he specializes in OBPI's. Hope everything goes well,

Andrew
RTBPI

Hope, I am having surgery at Mayo on Nov 22 so I will be in the sopital when you guys are there, maybe I will be out, no telling! Feel free to look me up!!

COurtney Edlinger 26 (RTBPI 5.5 years)

Good Luck for surgery. I am OBPI in Canada (Montreal, QC)
Marieke
http://nurse-to-be08.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your good wishes. Andrew I hope you are doing well.

We are in Calgary too. The NS who will be doing the surgery if we choose to stay here is Rajiv Midha; he was recruited from Toronto 2 years ago to be the head of neurosurgery, is a specialist in brachial plexus and is said to be one of the best in North America.

Just today, in fact, we got a call from Dr. Allan Balzberg's office at Johns Hopkins (we contacted them a few weeks ago about a second opinion) to say that Dr. Midha is excellent. Dr. B was willing to do a second opinion but since JH is much farther away than Mayo, and I think the crew at Mayo is tops too, we will stick with our Mayo consult which is already organized.

Nevertheless it is comforting to know that we are in good hands here in Calgary.

Good luck on your surgery Courtney, we are literally paying a flying visit, in one day and out by noon the next day. If you're there and we can find the time, we'll say hi.