For those of you that have had a successful cross-neck transfer...

[diargasm]

More specifically to the axillar nerve. How long did it take you to notice that the nerve was growing across your neck? I still don't have any "tingle" across my neck whenever I the doc taps my deltoid. I had my operation on May 17.

[EllenB]

Hey -

John had a crosslateral C7 done, taking part of the C7 from the good arm & moving it over. (Is C7 the same as the axillar nerve?)

It was done in February '03 & only last month did he show signs of reinnervation. So that's close to 1.5 years. Of course, differences between the two of you include the length of nerve transferred over & based on that, expectations of timing. What have you been told to expect?

Keep us posted. Your positive attitude & strong interest in being well informed are inspirational.

Ellen

PS How is school going? What do you do about using a backpack?

[diargasm]

I was told by the doc that by tapping the deltoid, it would tingle at the point where the nerve is still growing. It's probably still too early for it to start happening though. They also said that my body has shown that it can grow nerves quickly, because my bicep can now bend a little over 90 degrees.

School starts on September 9th. I've decided not to take a math course this year. Writing pages of equations would be difficult for me. Instead, I'm going to take Government & Euro History. As for my backpack, I always put the strap over my left shoulder.

[diargasm]

How long did it take him to notice the tingle across his neck? I have a tingle on my neck whenever the dock taps my arm, but it comes from the bpi side. My doc said it's supposed to start from the normal side.

[EllenB]

You really are showing results fast! John didn't feel the tingle (I think called Tinsel's sign) until ~ 1 1/2 years post surgery. It was about 3 months later than the earliest point his doctors would have expected to see something...so I guess still within the normal date range but at the other end.

And as your doctor said, John felt the sensation in his good arm when they pressed on his bpi side. Given the speed your nerves grow, do you think you've just already moved beyond that point by now?

You & John can commiserate together about European History - he's taking it too.

Keep us posted,

Ellen

[Gayle Ozzy]

Hi,
I had cross neck transfers done with 4 nerves from my right brought around the front of my neck and plugged into the avused nerves on my left side. (I have 5 avulsed but they took the ulna nerve out of my BPI arm because they needed as much grafting nerve as possible -took some out of both legs as well)
This was world first surgery. All the right hand nerves were avaliable because I lost my right arm and shoulder also.
I guess it all depends on the lengh of the nerve they bring across but mine didn't quite reach to my throat so they gad a long way to grow. I had the op in Sydney on 25th Sept 2002. It was a little less than 12 mths later I got a flicker of movement in my dicep. It has strenthened now to where I can bend it just over 90 degrees but no straighten. Another 8 months later I got a bit of wrist bend and finger bend. (all in together a bit but no straighten). The strange part is all the movements I can do, I have to imagine I am doing it with the other side arm. The docs tell me it is one nerve that has grown incredibly fast and is doing all the movements I've got. It is because the ulna nerve that they harvested out of my left arm was a vascularised nerve (meaning it had it's own blood supply taken with it) were as the other 4 just get laid in your muscle and have to somehow pick up their own blood supply. Now nearly 2 years later the other nerves are starting to make small flickers around my shoulder. I still dont have any usable function in the arm but I can control it now. Terrible nerve pain and the drag(especially as I am so light on the other side) are my 2 biggest problems associated with the arm.
Bye and hang in there.

[diargasm]

Thanks a lot guys. So I gather from the last two posts that I have quite a while before I should start to worry about the success of the operation.