United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Ok-the bpi specialist originally scheduled peyton a ct scan, after looking at the xrays of his shoulder decided to do a mri orthogram. this was scheduled for tues (6/18) at 12:45 so i changed it because that is a long time to have peyton wait to eat, so the new test is scheduled for 8/12. Well I found out they want to do the mri because his shoulder could possibly be dislocated. The dr is out of town until 7/24 and the nurse will call me when he gets back to see if the test is needed right away. what does everyone think?

I don't have any advise marnie. Just wanted to say good luck.

Are they injecting a contrast medium for the scan. Sounds scary. I'll keep you guys in my thoughts!! Take care! Gosh the doctor is out of town for longer than a month! Jess

No, the dr is out of town next week, the soonest they could reschedule the mri was aug 12, but i called the dr's nurse and she said that seemed like a long time so she is going to talk to the dr once he gets back. I am not sure if they will be injecting anything or not.

Seems like a log wait for an appt. I think many people with BPIs have a shoulder dislocation to some extent, but most are prob. mild subluxations that don't need to be addressed surgically. I'm not sure what am MRI Orthogram is compared to just an MRI. I think that an MRI or a CT Scan would seem to be a reasonable test to determine if Peyton has a shoulder dislocation. I think I wrote before that Dr. Waters recommends an MRI for under 5 and a CT Scan for 5+ y rs old, so I would think it could go either way for Peyton. As far as timing, if he's not in pain, then 2 months away s/b okay, it's just odd that they'd have such a backlog for appts. Is he in pain at all? I'd be interested in hearing what the BP specialists says about the difference b/w the two different tests and why one would be a better test than the other.

-Tina

Peyton is not in pain except when I do the excercise where you put your elbow at your waist and rotate arm outwards, which I cannot get it to rotate out at all. When I try he says it hurts and does'nt want me to do it. I was looking for the post from Dr. Shenaq's son so that I could get Dr Shenaq's email address. Does anyone know how I could get in touch with Dr. Shenaq to see if he thinks I should have this test done or not? By the way, I took your advice Tina and called to find out why they wanted to do the MRI and that's when the nurse told me that (and she said she was making an educated guess because the dr was not there and she did'nt know for sure) but that she thought he probably wanted to do the mri to see if Peyton's shoulder was dislocated. They said that Peyton could not eat or drink anything 6 hours before the test and the test was scheduled for 12:45, well the first thing Peyton wants when he gets up is something to drink so I knew that would be too hard. Anyways, has anyone been told there child was dislocated and what did they do?

Marnie,
Roberto's shoulder is dislocated! Dr. Nath had told us last year otherwise I wouldn't have known. The orthopedist had taken x-rays and had confirmed that it was dislocated!
Depending on how dislocated it is I believe they some times recommend the capsulodesis surgery which was recommended for Roberto. Good luck with appointment & keep us posted! RoseAnne