United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

what can I expect? without alot of feelling I don't think I'm tight & need to relax, but I can reach back with my other hand and feel knots. I've heard it's good for lymphatic/circulation. I guess if nothing else it can't hurt, eh?

I don't know about your injury, but in my case even being touched lightly on my back on the bpi side would be horrible and I feel that anything stronger than a very light touch would set up a big pain seizure from the nerves. It's a pity because the joint and muscle pain in that area is bad, but not as bad as the nerve pain I'd get if anyone tried to massage it.
If my back, shoulder and scapula musles weren't so wasted away it might be better, I have very little flesh in that area.Whether massage would help would probably depend on the severity of your injury. If you don't get the nerve pain (quite often felt in the hand, no matter what the stimulus is, and feels like you have your hand in a deep fat fryer whilst it's caught in a mousetrap!) and have some normal feeling in your arm then a massage might help a lot with the joint/muscle issues. I don't get many attacks of the nerve pain these days but I'm always terrified of setting it off, so personally, I wouldn't go near a massage therapist.
If you do it, let us know how it goes :0)
Jen NZ

Tomorrow @ 12:30 she'll be here. I'll let you know. I'm not sure of my injury as it's been vaguely described. I see the BPI specialists @ Mayo on the 20/21st. I'm almost 5 months post injury and I get those "red hot pocker needle" pains in my hand now & then. It usually doesn't last long and I'm currently under the delussion it's "feeling something!"

I am not TBPI but the massage feels amazing! I think I need another session soon, I can feel the knots returning. A thought might be to try Kinesio Tape after you get the knots worked out. That works really well for me to control back pain.
I hope it goes well for you!!!

Amy 19 years old ROBPI from MN

I do pretty well with the massage. I wish I could afford to do it more often. I really believe it would increase my ROM and decrease my pain.

I am currently in PT and have had them massage my hand only at times. That is kind of painful. However, the results are worth some pain. My hand does not feel so dead afterwards. If that makes any sense!

One thing I do know. Don't let them do anything to you that you are not comfortable with. If it hurts tell them. If it makes your finger feel like they are on fire, tell them. If it makes you sick to your stomach because they are pushing to hard, TELL THEM! Remember that theraputic massage is different from a regular massage. They can adjust to your needs.

Let us know how things go for you. I hope you get some relief.

Well I'm mellow, But she didn't message my arm. I think it freaked her out and since I senced she didn't know enough I was alittle apprehensive to let her So she worked on my leg instead. I had 16fxs in my rt leg and 4 surgeries, am waiting to weight bear and have alot of edema, so hope the message gets that moving and some scar release. I'll wait to hear what the docs @ Mayo say about it b4 I have someone else work on my arm.

I bought this hard plastic gizmo called the body back massager. It is shaped like an S and it has other knobs sticking out of it. I love it. I'm in school so paying for massage is expensive and this thing is a great way to reach back to my shoulder and do my own tigger point massage.
Becky