United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I am 25 yrs old and was in a carwreck almost two years ago. My left arm was stretched 6 inches longer than my right, my brachial plexus were all super stretched. Three months after my wreck my arm had to be amputated at the elbow due to an infection. My shoulder is still paralyzed but I have intense pain everyday. My pain is constant but it will elevate at times that can make it hard to bear. I take no pain meds and no therapy, does anyone have a similar injury with the same pain?

south GA
I bet you'll get all kinda of responses out of this group, pretty much most people on here have been through, or are curently going through the same thing as you, and are more than willing to try and help you out. Seems what it all adds up to is that the level of pain is fairly consistent with the the level of injury to, and subsequent recovery of your brachial plexus.It's a very bad bargain anyway you find it, but though choices are slim for treatment,there are a miriad of ways to deal with the pain, mostly involving drug therapy of some sort and a multitude of other things, you'll just have to find the cocktail that is right for you.
I personally do not subscribe to the heavy narcotics/opiods approach,for me they just didn't work and had a lot of negative side effects, like total lack of will,and borderline starvation. Me, I take lot's of Neurontin/gabapentin and Ibuprofen and a suppliment called pycnogenol, and recently Zonigran. I also do acupunture on a regular basis.
Does it "cure" the pain? No, but I can tolerate it most of the time. I think.
Happy Trails Onepaw

My son had a car accident in 1995 and got a brachial plexus root avulsion. He has no use of his right arm/hand. He is now 31 and lives in pain. He takes neurotin and elevil at night to sleep. It's tolerable, maybe he has gotten a little use to it. I wish something good would come out.

Just like onepaw said...EVERYBODY has the pain! Again, just like he said, I don't subscribe to the heavy narcs theory either. Gabatril & Dibenzyline, occasionally coupled with one of the Class 2 "big guns" if I can't avoid it. One piece of advice...Steer clear of oxycontin! I was on 360mg/per day (120mg t.i.d.) for a couple years and it just totally lowered any and all inhibitions, desires, cares, or anything else motivational. Not to mention, that got my tolerance so high that the standard scripts like vicodin or tylox (if needed for something like a dental procedure), have absolutely NO effect anymore. I am fortunate enough that I could see what kind of effects it was having on me and I got the Dr to get me off of it and not look back. Severe as the pain was and still is good bit of the time, it's the lesser of two evils when faced with extended OC consumption.

Either way, good luck with the pain...unlike Clinton, most of us can truly say, "I feel your pain!"