United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Soon it will be 4 years since the car accident that I think is a BPI, a stretch injury to C8 and/or T1 on my right side (based on my research)causing nerve pain in my chest. Started with right arm weakness and severe nerve pain in my right chest. During a 7 1/2 month period in a neck brace, the pain switched from my right arm to my left arm with severe pain in my left elbow and my left thumb pad, my pinky and ring finger went numb. Dtrs. told me to have ulner nerve surgery, but I knew they were wrong, so I took the neck brace off and changed doctors. Elbow pain went away. 29 months later a new wonderful neurosurgeon performed a C7/T1 fusion to decompress the C8 nerve. I am left with severe nerve pain in my right chest and my left thumb pad. I've read nerve books for doctors and cannot find any other person with the same nerve pain that I have. Do you know of anyone? Going to London in a couple of weeks. Has anyone gone to a BPI doctor in London or someone really good in the US? The US is behind Europe with nerve research. I don't want to wast any more time. Thanks in advance to your response.
Pam Barnett, 54 yr old, Nashville, TN

Chest pain would suggest that there may be C4 involvement, which doesn't fit with your C7/T1 scenario. But I'm NOT a doctor and chest pain needs looking at. The thing is, tbpi often experience cortex plasticity which can mean that the pain messages we get are not necessarily related to the site of injury, if I scratch my chin I feel it in my bpi hand, despite not being able to feel anything in my bpi arm at all. If that makes sense! The part of my brain that used to deal with input from my right hand has been taken over by the part that deals with sensation from the face.
The docs in London are indeed extremely advanced, or at least prepared to look at ideas outside the box, but a lot of them are National Health service docs who don't take private patients. Christopher who posts here has talked to the most advanced guys in the field and he would know who's doing what and if they would see you.
Good on you for taking the initiative and following your instincts, the medical profession seems to be taking a long time to get involved in the idea of holistic medicine and the fact that injuries can and do cause reactions in totally unexpected areas. Doctors whose main focus is 'fixing the arm' can be resistant to the idea that a tbpi can cause all sorts of other things from speech problems to gait imbalances.
I hope you get the information you need.

I have chest pain on the left side of my chest. My BP injury occurred in January of 2005 and was caused by a shotgun. I told the doctors about the pain but they really don't respond to it. One doctor said that it might pass with time. The pain is increased if I'm hot, started, yelling, or outside in the heat. The only difference is my injury in on the left and all my prblems and pain are only on the left. I have also had hair loss only on the left side of my head and my left breast is bigger than the right.

I would like to know what you find out, if anything, about the chest pain. Good luck.