United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I woke up one morning with severe and numbness pain in my left arm. I thought it was a pinch nerve coming from my neck. (I have a history of 11 neck & back surgeries over the last 32 year.) Since that morning, I've had a myelogram, MRI, 2 nerve conductions and 2 EMGs done. I do not have a pinch nerve, but my doctor did diagnose me with brachial plexua lesions in my left arm. This is a very painful condition, and it's driving me crazy!! They put me on prednisone, tried injections in my neck, and have me on several different meds. But NOTHING has helped! Now they are talking about sending me to PT to de-sensitize the nerves in my arm, and sending me to a pain specialist(to deal with the pain), and they might try a stellate ganglion block to see if that will help, and then finally, they are talking about changing and increasing my pain meds. I have been on a low dose of Methadone (10mg./4xaday)for 15yrs. (I am a 60 year old woman.)
My back/neck problems started with a ruptured disk in my neck(32 years ago), and the next year I ruptured another one in my low back. Then it seemed like every 5 to 10 years I had to have a fusion done on my neck or back. And now,maybe the scar tissue has affected my arm?? I'm not sure, but this is totally different.
Can anyone help me? I've never heard of this before?
I don't want anymore surgery, but I'm ready to cut my arm off myself!!
I would appreciate any help with this subject.
Thank you!
Joy

Not sure of the procedures they are thinking of doing, but have you tried vicadin for the pain yet? Can you take it?

No, we haven't tried vicodin yet. Today, my dr. called in Ultram, to help with the break thru pain. But it's 1:40am, I'm wide awake, and still in pain. I think they want me to try the PT first. What do you know about BP? Is it an injury?? I still don't understand what is going on,....can surgery be done? Do you have it? Thanks for taking your time to reply to me! Joy

Joy,
Sorry to hear of your injury and pain. My son has a TBPI caused by a MVA. So I can't say I really have much information on your condition. But many people who suffer a BPI do have varying levels of pain. Many of them here are seeing pain specialists to cope with or lessen the pain. Several are also doing various pain drugs with differing results. Hopefully seeing the pain specialist will help you get this under control. My son seems to be in the minority here as he does not have pain with his injury.
Yes, BPI is an injury and there are several causes. As you suggested scar tissue can block the normal signals from the nerves. It can also be a stretch, tear, or complete avulsion. But, from what you said I think stretch or scar tissue may sound more likely in your situation.
The normal treatment seems to be PT or OT. They should have you doing ROM to keep things from tightening so that you will have the best recovery possible. They should also have you doing some strengthening excercises. These are both important but with the strengthening you don't want to over do it at first as this can slow the healing of nerves. They already heal quite slowly, at aprox 1" per month. I am not sure where you are feeling the loss in strength but it depends on which nerves are affected and where the injury is.
Surgery may be an option but with stretch they told us the best recovery will happen on it's own. They did go in to look at my son's injury and ended up removing scar tissue. Other than that all nerves were intack so they opted to leave it heal as this would be the best and most complete recovery of the nerves. He has had lots of improvement but the bicep is not able to move in gravity so he will probably be going for a muscle transfer this summer to hopefully make the arm functional.
I hope they can get a handle on the pain and get things coming back for you. Best of luck!! Oh, and I would recomend seeing a BP specialist if you haven't already. This is a very specialized area and not many other drs have a complete knowledge of the newest or best way to deal with this.
Sue

Thanks for your help.
I am already on a time released morphine for pain. It helps, but does not get rid of the pain.

Thanks for your note. It was very informative. We do not have a BP specialist around here, and I was shocked that my doctors didn't have much knowledge about this condition.
What exactly did they do to your son, in the way of surgery? After having so many other neck & back surgeries, I do hesitiate to have any more. They have change my pain medicine from methadone to a time released morphine, and this has helped. However, the pain and numbness is still there, and can be unbearable at times.
I'm glad to hear your son is doing better. This is encouraging to me. If nothing else, like you said, time will hopefully heal those nerves.
Thank you.