United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My grandson has LOPBI since birth. He had tendon transfer surgery 3 months ago to try to get movement on his wrist and hand. He was in a cast for 6 weeks. He started getting eletrical stimulation therapy 2 weeks ago and just last night started crying and saying his hand hurt . He said he "had ants on his hand". My daughter took him to the emergency room at 5 this morning because he was still complaining of pain. After checking him out , she was told the pain was most likely that the muscles and nerves in his hand starting to "wake up". Has anyone been through this surgery and are these symtems normal after E-Stim therapy?

These "feelings" are normal as he gains new movement and the E-stim works to get him stronger. They are neuropathic "pain" sensations typical in nerve injuries.

I would ask his doctor if he/she has a way to diminish the "pain" preferably without medication. Though there are meds that can be given, but he is young and I would want to avoid that.

I know for me applying ice packs help, massaging the area too.

I wish you lots of luck and happy healing after his surgery! I had a tendon transfer at age 14 too.

there are a lot of unknown variables...
how old is he?
is he just 6 weeks post op?
what type of e-stim?
what is the purpose of the e-stim? specifically
how long are they doing it for?
how strong are they applying it?
so many more questions I could ask you...
how much experience do your therapists have with this? (or are they just flying by the seat of their pants?? -- sorry to be a little offensive -- but I had a few of "those" therapists who had no clue but did it anyway just because they could - even though they didn't know how to)

Pia Stampe is a PT in Rochester, NY -- she is well trained in all kinds of e-stim and she brings it to the bpi community through workshops and intensive therapy clinics, etc. -- you can email her at pia@rochester.rr.com and I'm sure she can figure out if what's happening is normal or not.

I wouldn't let them do it unless I knew for sure if they were doing it correctly.
Scary.
especially if he's a little guy...
best of luck,
francine
franlitz@gmail.com