United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi guys, I haven't been around for a bit. I tbpi'ed my right dominant arm aug 98. C8 and T1 nerve roots avulsed.

I had reconstructive surgery 3 months post accident. To date my upper arm has regained most of it's previous movement but my hand and wrist is still negligable ( fail ). My only other surgical option at this point is amuptation just below the elbow.

It's such a big step that I'm just going to think on it for awhile. I could prolly do alot more with a prosthetic but then again chopping your hand isn't something to go into lighty ?

I've been thru the ringer with both surgery and pain management so I'd be happy to talk to other people who have questions.

Take care,

Mikey

hey mikeyb this is hdcrash my little brothers name is mikey and our last name starts with a b the neighbors child was the same age as my brother and his name was mikey so we called my little brother mikeyb to keep um seperated i had a tbpi aug 6 2002 and surgery jan 13 2003 i avulsed c5 c6 c7 and strched t1 c8 and they werent sending a good signal but had all that time to grow so they left them alone and did an intercostal nerve graft from under my ribcage to my bicep then took a nerve from my trapezious muscle and wired it to my shoulder. after the surgery i met with my doctor to get the prognosis and he told me what they did and that if my shoulder stablized and my elbow functioned that i could consider a muscle transfer from the inside of my legs which were acessory muscles and would not really affect the area know i dont know for sure what nerves they were going to hook up but i think he said something about a crossover from the otherside of the spine but if you havent looked into this option i would before an amputation the only down fall is that you lose some strength on the otherside you mentioned the pain does it still bother youin the hand area and do you have any feeling there. chris

Mikey,

So what all have you done/tried for pain management and what has worked the best?

Gene

hi gene this is chris at first i tried small doses of neurotin but didnt work im maxed out on it with 800mg 4 times a day plus ambien 10mg one time before sleeping and amitriptylin 150mg before sleep.I just stated using a tins unit i think is what it is called that sends an electric pulse to break up the signal thats sent back to the brain to tell thats pain I havent used it enough to justify it i do think it has helped but with the hole combination there is still extreme pain some of the time it seems that the best thing is doing some type of activity to keep my mind off of it.im sure that the doctors have told you that its a good sign that the pain is caused by the nerves regenarating but sometimes i feel like i can only take so much of a good thing

Hey Chris this is Ronnetta a 25 year old girl who had my hand amputated 2 1/2 year ago.I've have a below the elbow amputation and i still have the pain I've also tryed the same med's like you and still no relief so pretty much the advice you gave that other guy was the best advice as for now.If you somehow find relief e-mail me.Thanks

Hey Mike what do you do for the pain.I'm a below-elbow amputee of 2 1/2 years .Thanks Ronnetta

Hi Mikey...

Thanks for being there when I needed you.

Well I haven't had the chop just yet peeps. The fact that I know a prosthetic option is out there isn't new in my case. I think on day 3 after my accident they knew my hand would be rather dificult to get real movement.

They did a bang up job on the rest of my arm though. My total flail arm slowly became alot more useful. Shoulder, bicept and elbow came online within 1 year post op ( nerve graphs from the legs ). My c8-t1 root avusion eventually related into one tendon successfully making full regeneration to my hand. So now I have a very limited clenching motion. I can't hold objects with it but it is MUCH more useful than it was pre operative.

Sorry peeps but I can't help with pain issues, other than the normal post op meds I was given nothing. All I can say is that as my arm healed the buzzing nerve pain died down.

I'm almost 5 years post injury and I almost forget my pain progession now. But in my experience as the limb healed the pain dropped off.

Mikey ::)

Right back at you luv. It's a two way street. I'm so happy to hear Eric is doing well.

You too for that matter ??

Bye for now,

Mikey ::)

Hi,
Rusty here, right c6,c7,c8,t1. Kline did surg. in 87' I got a little movement and 95 % of the feeling. It has gotten really bad over the last 4 months. Started taking meds. again after a long time. I had a seziure 2-3 weeks ago. Quit taking everthing, hopefully it will ease up.
See Ya