United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

all the information I've read here and various other places on the internet is exactly consistent with what happended to me almost exactly two years ago. After a horrendous two-week sore neck, I woke up with almost no use of my left arm. Being a self-employed hairdresser, I had to give up my job but was able to do some recreational airbrush painting which also helped a little with the finances. I consequently saw a number of neurosurgeons, physiatrists, and physical therapists, all of whom decided that what I had was what they specialized in, but the two MRIs I had were inconclusive except to show the stenosis, herniation, spurs and arthritis that affected four levels in my neck. There had been no definitive injuries but I had fallen asleep in my chair and jerked awake, violently, and I'm wondering if that in connection with the mess in my neck might have caused the injury. In any event, two years have passed and recently I have noticed great improvement in my left arm...then, two weeks ago I developed another monstrous sore neck/shoulder and last Monday my right arm began failing and has continued to weaken until the present. It seems even more useless than the left did, probably because I have depended soley on it for the past two years. So now I can't raise or rotate my right arm and the left still is only about 75% and will not rotate inward either. They will not work together and learning to cope has been pretty frustrating and depressing. The hardest hit is that I can't even paint anymore. I haven't seen this subject any place yet and am wondering if this is something that can just reoccur at any time? Has this happened to many others? I'm in the Sacramento area and not one doctor I have seen has mentioned this possibility, but it sounds so much like what I have been dealing with. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Jackie

In the UK (and Italy too) we have doctors known as GPs, ie. general practitioners, who know "a bit of everything" so to speak, and after their initial visit they refer u to a specialist(s), who specialize(s) in a particular field.

Normally GPs are able to direct u to the right specialist(s) after giving you an initial good first idea of what u may have.

I don't know how the system works in North America, but I would suggest u 1st see the equivalent of our GP, who can give u an initial diagnosis.

I'm not a doctor, and I'm just guessing, but I think u have an inflammatory problem in ur neck/shoulder area which also affects ur nerves, and consequently prevents ur arms (both) from moving correctly.

Good luck, and pls keep us up to date. I'm curious to know what u have. Ciao.

Athos

I had to chuckle when Athos mentioned that a GP is a doctor who knows "a little bit of everything"...mine knows "a whole lot of nothing"...but anyway...
You did not mention whether or not there has been any shoulder, arm or scapula pain in your post or whether or not you have had any nerve testing completed such as EMG or NCV testing (which usually go hand in hand). If you did, what were the results?
Did the neurosurgeon mention the terms Brachial neuritis or Parsonage-Turner Syndrome? This is what I have and could be a possibility since you mentioned that you cannot raise your arm.
You may want to do a search of these terms on the net.
Also, do you have any scapular winging? This is sometimes only evident when you push against a wall...the shoulder blade will wing out.
I also have spinal stenosis, bones spurs and nerve impingement from C3-C6, but although this is responsible for radiculopathy in my arms, doctors don't feel it is the cause of the weakness (this is due to long thoracic nerve damage and serratus muscle dysfunction).
I hope this hasn't confused you all the more.
I understand how frightening it can be to be suffering without a clear diagnosis.
I hope you are able to find the answers you are needing soon.
Nan

Thanks Nan and Athos, for your replies. I do have a GP type, only called a primary care provider, or some such generic title. She freely admits to not having the necessary expertise in this subject and volunteers to refer me elsewhere. Last week I faxed her a copy of a description of this disorder, but she remains unconvinced in spite of having all my records in her office. Yes, I have been in constant pain for at least two weeks now, down my neck and across my right shoulder. This is the same area that was so painful two years ago when my left arm was disabled. I have constant pain under that scapula. For years, at work in the salon, my front upper legs would get numb, then cold then burn like fire at which point I'd take a couple of minutes to sit and then continue. About the same time I noticed I could only walk swiftly a short distance before it felt like I was walking underwater, and also gradually became *extremely* short of breath.
I never put all this together before and none of the doctors asked about it. I can remember a lot of the terms on my test results, including a negative result on the needle-nerve-conduction test, but don't remember ever reading the term, brachial plexitis until I discovered it on the internet.
Thanks for your input.
Jackie

Hi, I have a BPI injury I received in a ski accident 1/27/03. I just had surgery on Monday with Dr. Hentz at Stanford. He seems to be an excellent Dr. and surgeon. He runs the Hand and Upper Extremity clinic at Stanford in Palo Alto, not too far from Sacramento. I would try to get a referral to the clinic, he specializes in BPI injuries but the clinic, I think, deals with different types of upper extremity injuries, so if it is something different than bpi you will still be in right place. His contact info is on this site.

Hi, I have a BPI injury I received in a ski accident 1/27/03. I just had surgery on Monday with Dr. Hentz at Stanford. He seems to be an excellent Dr. and surgeon. He runs the Hand and Upper Extremity clinic at Stanford in Palo Alto, not too far from Sacramento. I would try to get a referral to the clinic, he specializes in BPI injuries but the clinic, I think, deals with different types of upper extremity injuries, so if it is something different than bpi you will still be in right place. His contact info is on this site.

Hi, this response may appear more than once, i hadn't logged in, oops. Anyways...

I have a BPI injury I received in a ski accident 1/27/03. I just had surgery on Monday with Dr. Hentz at Stanford. He seems to be an excellent Dr. and surgeon. He runs the Hand and Upper Extremity clinic at Stanford in Palo Alto, not too far from Sacramento. I would try to get a referral to the clinic, he specializes in BPI injuries but the clinic, I think, deals with different types of upper extremity injuries, so if it is something different than bpi you will still be in right place. His contact info is on this site.