United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

hey yes im ashamed to admit it but i do smoke and trying to quit my therapist said it could slow down the nerve growth because of lack of oxygen ive heard of decommpression chamber treatment for nerve regrowth because of the pure oxygen anybody else have this nasty habit or any info on how important it is to quit i probably need a boot in the ass to make me quit thanks

Hi, i was told the same, about smoking cutting down blood oxygen and not helping nerve regrowth. I quit for several months after the crash cos i was desperate to help recovery in any way possible. Then hit a period of depression, and alcohol and smoking were restarted, doh! Must say i got very good arm recovery and who knows how much of that was down to the stopping smoking ages and working very hard at PT or how much was just luck? I only avulsed one so maybe would have got great recovery anyway.
Good luck, with the kicking nicotine and hopefully recovery!

I don't smoke, but when I asked my Dr. about anything else I could to speed my recovery. He said do not smoke or be around people who smoke.

hey dave thanks for the feed back i quit at first and then started back with the deppression phase tryin to quit again glad to hear you got good recovery back which nerve did you avulse and how bad were the others and how long did it take before you started to see recovery thanks

thanks for the input null i guess i really need to discuss this with my doc thanks

Hi HD, my diagnosis was severe stretch of all nerves at first. Never had the exploratory or repair nerve surgery because of neck fractures from the crash making that surgery too risky.. I broke C7 and T1 and we now think T1 nerve was avulsed by the results of recovery, very good in my arm and shoulder, then halfway down my forearm everything is wasted and gone. My fingers and thumb open and close from the muscles in my forearm (can't remember the names) but the intrinsic hand muscles are long dead. Maybe a tendon transfer surgery will be appropriate in a year or so, for improved 'opposition' and hand use. I guess recovery happened within the first year, veeeeeeeerrry slowly. No new innervation after that but lots of PT and activities/therapies strengthen the muscles that did return. Overall from flail arm to great recovery i have been extremely lucky, and grateful.
Keep doing your therapy(s) dude if nothing else it helps with pain and stiffness, mail if you want to ask anything, cheers,
Dave