I need some opinions, fast! Late axillary nerve surgery?
Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:39 am
Well,
It's been 13 months since the accident (You can read my story in the forums if you want. "Male 27 motorcycle accident..."). There is still no big change in my wasted deltoid. Except, finally, some reinnervation is confirmed on the last EMG I got two days ago.
I had decided to go to a new ortho surgeon who is also an expert on BP repairs and knowing it was late for primary surgery on nerves. I still needed to know all the options my previous doc was not bothering with. Today, evaluating my EMGs, he told me it looked like my recovery was too late, too little. But he would still go for it and do a primarily exploratory/repairing operation on my axillary nerve. The other muscle groups innervated from C5 and C6 showed much better improvement, so he reckoned maybe the axillary nerve had some additional damage distally.
He says even if all goes good and he finds the damage and repairs it, he cannot make any promises about the quality of my final recovery. He said if it were 6 months ago he'd positively push it. He added still, since I don't have anything to lose with this operation, he still thinks it is better to go in and see what's there than wait one more year and lose the last option. He is suspecting one of the branches of axillary nerve innervating the posterior deltoid is ruptured and if this turns out to be the case, he can repair it.
I have to decide very fast. He can do the operation next week if I give it a GO. So, do I really have nothing to lose with my recovery potential even after a surgery that may unfortunately turn out to be redundant? I also hear a lot of sad "wait and see" stories around.
What do you think?
It's been 13 months since the accident (You can read my story in the forums if you want. "Male 27 motorcycle accident..."). There is still no big change in my wasted deltoid. Except, finally, some reinnervation is confirmed on the last EMG I got two days ago.
I had decided to go to a new ortho surgeon who is also an expert on BP repairs and knowing it was late for primary surgery on nerves. I still needed to know all the options my previous doc was not bothering with. Today, evaluating my EMGs, he told me it looked like my recovery was too late, too little. But he would still go for it and do a primarily exploratory/repairing operation on my axillary nerve. The other muscle groups innervated from C5 and C6 showed much better improvement, so he reckoned maybe the axillary nerve had some additional damage distally.
He says even if all goes good and he finds the damage and repairs it, he cannot make any promises about the quality of my final recovery. He said if it were 6 months ago he'd positively push it. He added still, since I don't have anything to lose with this operation, he still thinks it is better to go in and see what's there than wait one more year and lose the last option. He is suspecting one of the branches of axillary nerve innervating the posterior deltoid is ruptured and if this turns out to be the case, he can repair it.
I have to decide very fast. He can do the operation next week if I give it a GO. So, do I really have nothing to lose with my recovery potential even after a surgery that may unfortunately turn out to be redundant? I also hear a lot of sad "wait and see" stories around.
What do you think?