United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi Everyone!!
We're all here gearing up for Ashley's third surgery & I thought if i could explain some of whats going to happen maybe some of you that have had these procedures done could give us some insight on recovery & how much the surgery corrected the issue at hand.
She is 4 1/2 & having surgery October 14th. Dr. Waters plans to do a tendon lengthing in her elbow & a bicep transfer. Moving down the arm he plans to also perform an osteotomy (sp?) in the forearm bone to help her w/ some internal rotation. If these procdures move along smoothly & go well he plans to continue down & move a muscle in her wrist because it stays tilted to one side only....he plans to move the muscle more in the middle so its going to reposition her wrist in more of a neutral position. Any thoughts, experiences on any of these would be greatly appreciated. She will be in a full arm cast for about 6 weeks. Having experience w/ the SOL cast from her second surgery, i feel pretty confident in that department & finding clothes to fit etc etc. Thanks in Advance, Melissa

Melissa - I'm curious - is he doing all of this in one surgery?

October 14th is pretty soon - how are YOU doing??

Maia had the biceps tendon lengthening with Dr. Nath and it was HER favorite surgery because she got her wish - a straight arm! We haven't done the osteotomy for her but I have a couple of pages on kids that have had osteotomies on my site.... Louise's daughter Elizabeth had one.... many others. I'm sure people will come forward.

I wish Ashley the best and hope that she has an easy recovery - you too, mom. I know it's impossible to keep from agonizing over this stuff - but we'll be keeping you and Ashley in our thoughts and prayers,
francine

Thank You Francine...Believe me I will take all the well wishes that I can.
Dr. Waters is doing the biceps/tendon lengthing & the osteotomy. He told us that if those procedures go smoothly & he doesn't run into difficulty he'd like to do the muscle transfer in the wrist at the same time instead of having her come back...again. I'd much rather get it all over with at once myself. Ashley would be thrilled w/ a straight arm. She'd also be thrilled if her hand would turn inward like the other one soooooo i'm very hopeful this time around & I'm very excited for my little girl. Ofcourse i'm also praying that within the next week she doesn't catch any bugs!! I'd only wish to anticipate this once...i certainly don't want to look forward to another date!
So if all could send us some healthy vibes that would be terrific. Thanks A Bunch, Melissa

Can't really add any advice since we haven't faced this surgery yet, but I'm praying for you, Melissa and Ashley and wish you the best.

Kari