United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My wife and I just returned from the neurologist in DC. My wife had tests(strength, needles, electrical impulse, blood, MRI,etc) over the past 3 weeks and we were returning for the results. The Doc said the BP was the result of a virus. My wife had a URI about 2 weeks prior to the BP onset, then experienced a severe neck pain lasting about a week, then loss of strength in her right arm and to a much lesser degree in her left. Anyway, the Doc said no tumors, no indication of any trauma so the cause was the body's immune system attacking the BP area because a particular protien in the virus looked like a protien in the nerve and the immune system attacked the nerve as well as the virus, when the virus subsided the immune system was no longer on the attack. He said the prognosis was good and she would gradually regain strength(the strength test he did today was greatly improved over 3 weeks ago), he went on to say that it would be unusual to have a 100%(complete) recovery, that there may always be some loss of strength in her arms. He also prescribed an exercise routine to strengthen her arms, neck and upper torso. Does this make sense? Everything I read in the past 10 days seems to indicate BP to be caused by some kind of physical trauma. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Wow! Howdy neighbor! I live in Manassas, Va and am going through the same thing as your wife. I too was suffering from a URI, woke up one night with an incredible pain in my neck (thought I'd slipped another disc) and within 3 days no use of my right arm. Well at least no use in the deltoid and bicep muscles.

I had an MRI, to make sure I'd not blown another disc, and have been to the neurologist to confirm the thought of BPI due to virus. I was told that I "should" recover use of my arm in about a year's time. Right now I am trying to deal with the pain and difficulty of having very little use of my right arm. I go back to the neurologist the first week of Jan to have another EMG.
Makes you wonder about the viruses we have here in the NoVa area Does your wife have any autoimmune diseases? I do, and have wondered if that's part of the problem.

She recently(about 18months ago) developed a reaction to shellfish and Alleve, docs say that is also an autoimmune issue.

bump

?????????? Why are you bumping these things up?????????

Good morning!
Sorry to hear about your situation. I may be in the same boat. Dr. Nath in Houston has tentatively diagnosed my situation as a thing called Parsonage-Turner Syndrome. It affects about 1.64 in 100,000 people. The cause is unknown, but they suspect trauma, viruses, or bacterial origins. Might be worth your asking your Dr. Hope this helps. It ain't much fun though, is it? Mark

cbe411,

The bump is because this thread relates to a question on the general board, so someone bumped it up for us.