United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everybody,

Cassidy's therapist is in the process of trying to find some kind of brace that Cassidy can wear for periods of time throughout the day to help her with her external rotation. We do ROM with her twice a day but this excersise has become very difficult to do with her and we are hoping that we can find something that will help her....I have heard of Theratogs (sp?)..are they something that would help Cassidy's external rotation?
thanks for all your input!!
Dawn, Mom to Cassidy 21 months ROBPI

We are going thru the same thing as well. My daugther is 11 mo. She has some scapular winging and is in internal rotation. We just got the ARK brace yesterday. Too soon to say if it is working yet. You can get more info at www.arkpcb.com. We got the scapular support brace and as I understand it is much more affordable now. It has some good info on the website. I'd be interested to hear as well if anyone has found anything they like.

I remember Maggie having this problem when she was at that age and until she turned around 4. She would always scream and tilt away from the stretch, we didnt have a good therapist so we were never told about braces for this. As she got older I guess she got used to it or just became looser with all the stretching because now she can external rotate while we are stretching without much tilting.

Her dad lifts weights and we made it a game of doing pec flies and she thought that was funny, just something we tried after years of basically turmenting her with this stretch.

The prob. I had with Grant (7 months) and Theratogs is that he was able to take them off.

I know what you mean..anything that Cassidy can get off herself will not work. I have an appointment with her therapist on the 4th to try and come up with something...

Has Cassidy had an MRI to see if she's subluxated or dislocated? Are you seeing a bpi specialist? ...Am asking because there may be much more to external / internal rotation issues than just putting a brace on or a tog on. This problem is the basis for many of the surgeries that the children have early on.

Cassidy is seeing a BPI specialist and numerous Physical therapist's along with an occupational therapist. Cassidy is not subluxed or dislocated. When Cassidy is botoxed the external rotation movement is fluid. Cassidy's large muscles that aren't affected are overpowering her muscles that are affected...we have seen it before. Cassidy is most likely going to need secondary surgery but now is not the time as she is still healing and improving from her primary surgery. That is why she has not been botoxed again. Next month at her one year post op appointment it may be a differant story but until then I want something that will help keep her movements fluid and loose. Thanks everyone for all your input I value it immensely.