United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone can answer this question. I am going for surgery on the 23rd of this month. I having been doin acupunture, range of motion, stim and mircocurrent treatment. I was told that my nerves are still good and the muscle as well. I avulsed C5- T1. My question is are these treatments goin to help with what i might get in return. Got hurt in June 06 and I am now off all my meds but it's not easy.

Definatly e-stim and ROM will help. The others may also. I think you need to do whatever you can to retain as much as possible. Hopefully it will all help with recovery in the end.
Sue

Tyson, I'm confused by something you wrote. If your nerves are really avulsed, then I don't understand how they can be good. If nerves are avulsed, they're pulled out of the spinal cord - and they can't be repaired by surgery (at least in the U.S.) or regenerate on their own. Maybe, instead, your nerves are torn or somehow damaged but still attached to the spinal cord.

Ellen

They are avulsed what I meant to say was that the Dr said my nerves and muscle are still good but they are not attached to the spine. I guess that means they are not dead yet. I hope that makes more sense. Thru microcurrent treatment they see that the nerves are firing but no signal is getting to the brain.

I hate to say this but, being someone who has C5,6 and 7 pulled/avulsed out of the spine, your muscles will die and quickly. The nerves are on "fire" inside. They are active and go wild with no where to go, which explains the pain. There are many things they can "TRY" to help with that but no one has had 100% success of that. I have had my injury for 19 years and my nerves are on "fire" to this day. There is no connection to the brain anymore. I have Doctors from Chicago (Rush) to Mayo Clinic and the pain is here to stay. I pray that is not the case for the the rest of my life.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news.
Kath in Chicago

Tyson, I meant to write on the earlier post that it's wonderful you've been able to get off your meds. For many people, the pain can get better over time, as they learn coping skills like getting enough rest & controlling stress - as well as staying busy / distracted. Some people also get pain relief after surgery, as movement returns to parts of the arm or hand that had been paralyzed before. You have to reteach your brain how to send signals differently (for example, my son John had to teach his brain to move his injured arm instead of his good arm with the part of the "good" C7 nerve that was split from the good & moved over to the bad.) John is also off pain meds now...

Take care & good luck with your upcoming surgery. Please keep us posted on how you're doing!

Ellen

That's very true about retraining your brain to try and move your arm. Mel can move her arm by pursed lipped breathing since they took her intercostal nerves and put them in her arm. When we squeeze her bicep she feels it in her chest! Sue

Hi Ellen. I was wondering it's been i think 4 yrs since your son got hurt. Did he gain any muscle back in his arm? Does he need anymore operations?

Kath...Can't help but wonder if the DREZ proceedure has been considered? If so, what has been the reasoning for not attempting it? My son's pain is so terrible that he spends most of his day bent over in pain. Thanks, Michele

Hi Tyson,

Sorry I didn't see your note until today - we were out of town for Thanksgiving.

It's been exactly 4 years since John's accident nad close to 3 1/2 since his first operation to move muscles & nerves over to his bad arm. He had a complete paralyzed arm (avulsion of all five bpi nerves) and now has bicep, tricep, detloid & hand grip / release - all from transferred musces & nerves. John had two major surgeries (which Mayo now combines into one) and then a couple minor ones to tweak his thumb & hand.

Below url is his story on the Mayo web site if that helps, and I also have on pdf a copy of a pretty extensive article the ubpn magazine Outreach did on our experience & the Mayo approach about 1 1/2 years ago - so if you want me to email the pdf file to you, just let me know. Here's the Mayo one:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/brachial-plex ... floyd.html

Keep asking questions! Take care,

Ellen