United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everyone,
Grant's local rehab Dr. has recently prescribed TES electrical stimulation for his left scabular stabilizeres. But, we have recently started the kinesio taping with his PT to help with his scapular winging. Here is my question, our PT said to just leave the tape on until it is no longer preforming it's function (sometimes that is 4 or 5 days). The doctor does not want the electrodes to go over the tape because he feels it will inhibit conduction. We tried taping the electrodes underneath but Grant's skin became very irritated. I do not think he will tolerate changing the tape dailey... Anyone else have this come up? Any suggestions from you seasoned veterans?
I appreciate the imput!
Stephanie B.

Ok, here is my two cents worth. I am no expert so this is just my opinion. I wish I could draw diagrams because I do not have a clue how I am going to explain this. Plus, I do not know the age and size of your child. Our daughter is 4 and weighs 28 lbs, so she is a tiny mite. We have been doing TES for over a year with great results. Her regular therapists have been worried about her scapula and wanted to try taping it. So, I stopped doing the TES to give the taping a try, since like you, I could not figure out how to achieve both. Our TES therapist is 3 hours away, so I decided to just forgo the TES a few months till we could see her for repositioning. Personally, I think the taping was useless. But our daughter is what we call a Loosy Goosy....she is flexible all over and BOTH of her scapulas wing. We went to the TES therapist and also asked Dr. Nath and they both agreed not to worry about her scapulas so much. However, she did show me positions to allow for both, using the 6 inch long electrodes. We would place one 6 in electrode about a finger width from her spine, straight up and down, with the top of the electrode just even with her shoulder. Then, the other one we would go on the outside of the other side of the scapula, starting over her shoulder a bit and coming down the back. Kind of making a sandwhich with the scapula in the middle. That way, they could tape the scapula in the middle if the therapists wanted to. I am sure there are ways to TES the rhomboids to increase scapula stabilization and possibly tape the scapula too. You can email our therapist if you want. She is TES certified and specializes in BPI kids. Email me if you want the info.
Good luck.
Kelli
P.S. We are dropping the taping and gonna just go with TES again.

Kelli if you don't mind my asking, who is your tes therapist? LeeAnne

We saw great results with the taping and Matthew's scapula wasn't really winging that bad after using the tape a few weeks and he had increased range of motion while taped. He really didn't need to be taped anymore for the scapula before we started TES.
If you still want to tape maybe you could tape during the day a couple of times a week.
Cindy

One of Nicole's therapists mentioned doing taping, but Nicole was doing TES at the time (as she is again now). I asked her how we would do that and where we would tape Nicole. She said that if we were going to do it, it'd be something to try later, at some point, when she's not doing TES. IMO, I think it's too much to put them through both treatments at once. I would get a few opinions on what might help him the most right now and then just focus on one thing at a time - JMO. I hope this helps. -Tina

Stephanie- I don't want to sound like a broken record. We have been doing taping with Hannah since the end of July. She is suppose to wear a Y shape tape. The lower part of the Y starts at her elbow and goes up the back side of her arm at the crease of her arm pit the 2 tail break off. We don't tape inside her arm pit. One tail goes under her scapula and one runs along the back of her neck to the middle of her neck. We were told the tape would last about 3-4 days. NOT it lasts maybe 2 for us. She breaks out so bad with sores at her neck from the tape that we have to wait so long in between tapings that we decided last night we were done. I can't keep watching Hannah cry every time we take the tape off. She is only 2 Ij don't like to put her through pain. She to turns red. She has such fare skin. I think she might be over sensitive to the tape.

We are going to start TES at the end of Aug. So I will talk to talk to the therapist about the taping at that time.

Nicki-

I have used Kinesio taping and found it very helpful to retrain muscles. But I can't imagine it really has much value when sleeping as one is not actively using muscles then. And sleeping is when one uses the TES.

So how would it work to tape during the day and do the TES at night? I know the tape is expensive and that it is good to have it on for longer periods, but maybe this could be a compromise?

I don't do TES but I do use e-stim and I can tell you that those electrodes won't work through the tape.

Nancy

Hi everyone,
Thank you all for your valuable input. After reading everyones comments and discussing the situation with my husband and Grant's PT, we've decided to forego the taping for now and concentrate on Tes. It would be just too much for Grant at Two years old to have the tape on and pulled off dailey. You do what you can...
I can't tell you all how much I appreciate this community!

Stephanie