United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everyone!
It's been along time since I have posted anything. My son Shane who is 20 months old had Primary surgery a year ago this month at TCH. We have found a new neurologist and neurosurgeon in Ann Arbor, MI who keep in contact with TCH. There aren't any real visual signs of improvement, but he had an another EMG done this month and it showed signs of re-inavation. His tricep muscle is very strong, so they talked to my wife and I about BOTOX injection into the tricep muscle to weaken it,in hope that the bicep would be stimulated more. So after talking to the Dr. that gave the EMG, and his neurologist and the neurosurgeon we went ahead and had it done. I am familiar with BOTOX and what is used for and the possible side affects it can have. I was just wondering if any of you have gone this route and if so, what was the outcome?

Thanks...............Shane's Dad

We don't have experience with botox but I know someone who does and I will email her to look at this post in case she's not been on to read lately....

I will hope for the best for Shane! Nice to see you here again!
-francine

Dear Shane's Dad:
We did this with Juliana-with fabulous results!!

She was hyper-extending the arm, even when we were trying to have her do "passive" exercises that were bilateral with her uneffected arm doing all the work (like a rowing exercise with theraband). That is what conviced me to try.

We did it twice. Now her movement is so fluid. When she gets tired I will see her revert to old habits, but during daytime things are great.

Juliana does not have good sensation in the triceps area, so the injections were not painful. She was awake and it took all of 10 minutes. Our doc had the shot locations "mapped," so she knew where they were going to go.

We used NMES (functional estim) on the biceps while she was botoxed, and I think that helped. All of our therapy was very functional in style (well, it still is), and we really tried to have her use the arm in ways that she would normally use it. Before we did it (and while we were still researching) Dr. Nath told me that he believed that the brain could build new "pathways" to the muscles. And that the botox would let the brain do this. What we were seeing was her arm extending even though we knew that she knew that she wanted to flex. I think that we have accomplished this.

I encourage people to use botox all the time.

If you want, you can email me directly.

claudia