Back from Mayo, no surgery yet

[fortitudine]

Hi all,
We went to the Mayo yesterday. Eric was injured August 10 and this was our second visit, possibly for extensive surgery. Had EMG's and then saw the amazing trio. Dr. Shin came in first, with his high energy, friendly approach, looked at the EMG results, did the clinical, and said he'd suggest waiting two months. In the past 2 months, Eric's function in his arm has improved quite a bit.His biceps muscle is at an acceptable level, brachialis is working and the spinati are coming back. Dr Shin also found a 'flicker' in the brachioradialis and possibly in the posterior aspect of the deltoid. Nothing in the lateral or anterior aspects. There was a minuscule improvement on the EMG's - could be nothing or might be something, he said. Best to wait, because the wait would not seriously impact any surgical recovery and it's always best to have natural regeneration.

Dr. Bishop came in and said much the same thing. They also noted that the deltoid is innervated by the axillary nerve, which takes a very circuitous route from spine to muscle, and thus still has a chance of recovering. "We don't really need Dr. Spinner, now" chuckled Dr. Shin, "we got a majority!" Dr. Spinner then arrived and suggested that while it was a pretty close choice, he'd go in and take a look; the advantage being an earlier and marginally better recovery. Eric went with the majority.

So unless things come to a screeching halt, we can expect continued improvement in most of the muscles. We are scheduled for EMG's and then a nerve transfer from the triceps to the deltoid on the 22/23 March. It's a much easier surgery than what had been planned, and won't impact the other arm muscles as much. Even if the deltoid looks like it is coming back, we will still go back to the Mayo, to make sure everything is copacetic, because as one of the docs said, you may get some function back without surgery, but not enough.

What an amazing group they are. The whole place impresses me - especially the absolutely spotless linoleum foors - they look cleaner than our hospitals! BTW the trio's infection rate is less than 4/1000. That is way less than average. Not acceptable to the unlucky ones, but still, a very good sign.


Message was edited by: fortitudine

[EllenB]

Thank you so much for the update. It sounds as if things are going really really well for Eric - he'll be back on his bike before you know it. Given the 2/3, 1/3 scenario you described, it's good the team doesn't have an even number of surgeons!

I'm glad you asked about infection rates. I hate what happened to Courtney. Wonder what's the average elsewhere?

Take care,

Ellen