United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I need to know if anyone can help me on this pain my son seems to keep having in the affected elbow. Last year he had a series of serial cast on this elbow and it helped greatly. We worked on streching but it seems to be contacting agian. My concern is with the pain.

I just came to post a similar question. My child is having pain in her elbow and has been ongoing for quite a while (she is 5 years).

i'm 19 and i have BP anyway when my elbow is in pain i try to put something warm on it like a water bottle or a warm heat pack on it and just lie down. don't do anything that will put pressure on it. if it gets really bad though you should take him to the hospital

Where do you live? I know with a lot of us it hurts more as the weather shifts, particularly cold. Could it be that perhaps this is part of it? The hot rag, heat pak etc. as Harley suggested may help.

Also, Harley, saw your first post in the TBPI forum, welcome! Sorry you have to be here, but welcome nontheless.

We live in the south but your right it does seem to be when the weather is changing and I will try the heat. We just went back through the casting and waiting to be fitted with a dyno splint. The casting gets the arm stretched back out but it will start going back very quickly.

shlecki - just a warning about the heavier dynamic splints.... is your child's shoulder joint subluxated? Is it partially or completely out of joint? I'm asking because the dynasplint is a very heavy splint and depending on how your child positions the arm at night - it may cause more problems in the shoulder. Find out what the state of the shoulder is and you may want to look into shoulder supports to wear at night while the dynasplint is on -- protect the shoulder.

PS - I found that the people who fit the dynaplints (in my state) were NOT orthotists -- they were just salesmen. They gave my 2 year old daughter a knee splint that was way too big to use on her elbow and every morning when she woke up it was on in the opposite direction! Within a very short time she was dislocated and we've never been able to correct the dislocation long term. We had better results with the ultraflex dynamic splint - this splint is custom formed to the arm and this splint never turned around in the middle of the night... and it was slightly lighter weight. That was at age 2-3. Now she is 11 and she still has the elbow contracture because that's the position her arm has to be in when it moves. Now when we serial cast or splint the elbow it causes major pain in her shoulder so we had to stop.

Thanks I will ask about that!! You know when Andrew was born and we later found out what was really going on with him because of doctors not knowing a lot about this injury. I couldn't find a doctor in my home state and had to travel out of state just to get some answers and help for him. Now we moved here and man it seems to be worse. The Pediatricains just want to know how he can even use the arm. Then after telling them all he has been through and they sadly admit they don't know a lot about this injury I end up telling them what I need. It is so scary that I get on this message board and learn more and get more answers from you guys than the doctors themselves. Thanks so much!!