United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hey Everyone!

My injury occurred on December 3, 2008 and I had my nerve repair sugery on December 12, 2008.

My C-5 and C-6 were avulsed and my supraspinatus muscle was affected. I had no movement of my shoulder, no elbow flexion, and weakness in my wrist and thumb and pointer finger. I also develped atrophy which affected the entire arm.

It has been just over 10 months since my repair and I am doing awesome!!! Up until August I was still in tons of pain and not having much improvement. I was able to do more with my lower arm by about March 2009, but still could not do much else. Well, in August I began to see lots of improvements with function. My rotator cuff is working now! I still am very very weak and do have lots of pain which is inhibiting the strengthening of the muscles. But, my doctor said that the improvement I have had over the past two months has been amazing! I am so excited. To think of how I was almost a year ago...and to be here, it is awesome.

I still struggle with pain and the emotional affects of everything that has happened. But I am so thankful for what I have gotten back. I am not at 100%, no where near that... but the fact that I can move my shoulder, even a little, is awesome to me.

The doc said if my pain does not go away by July 2010 then I will probably have it for forever, but bc of how nerves heal I will definitely have it until then...so I am working on just distracting myself as much as possible and working through the pain to strengthen, but at the same time not overdoing it.

This past year has been insane for me. A rollercoaster of emotions and uncertainty. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now though. Even though he said that most of my recovery is probably done, he said that I still will continue to recover over the next year as well, just at a much slower rate.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know!

www.caringbridge.org/visit/mariemacher

Thanks soooo much for your update. I will be checking regulazrly on your CaringBridge site..

You are an inspiration!
Carolyn J
LOBPI/adult

Great to hear things are improving for you - I'm in a similar position, my accident was 28th Nov 2008 and my surgery was on the 30th March 2009. Both my C5 & C6 were avulsed but have been reconnected using the Sural? nerve from my right leg to C7. I have no shoulder movement, no elbow flexion, my hand is about 75% good although i can't lift my fingers more than 30 deg and my arm has atrophied somewhat despite my efforts to keep it healthy.
On the upside, i have new nerve spasms from my shoulder to my fingertips regularly. My surgeon said 3 to 6 months and 50% chance from surgery until i should see some elbow flexion returning. It's been 6 months and two weeks since surgery and i'm trying to be patient, what else can you do? Hearing that someone else is having some success is good motivation to keep going.

Cheers John

I have a question. I have C5,6and 7 avusled. I was told once they are pulled out they can't be put back in, if they do a nerve transfer how do reconnect a new nerve if they can't just re-attach the orginal one?

Kath

Hey Kath,

As far as I know my C5 and C6 were cut. There was also another nerve of mine that was partially torn, but not completely.

Originally, I was told they would have to do a sural nerve graft. The sural nerve is in your leg. So basically they were going to break my collarbone, grab the nerve from my leg, and then use it to reattach my cut nerves by attaching one end of the graft to one side of the cut nerve and the other to the other side of the cut nerve - basically using it as a bridge.

When my surgeon ended up going in he checked the cut nerves before taking out the sural nerve. He had been told that my nerves were retracted and no way to pull them back together. When he went in though, he was able to just reconnect them without the nerve graft - while they were retracted, he as able to pull them together and hold it long enough to put sutures in (or whatever the gelatinous material was that held it together).

As far as I know it is possible to do nerve grafts though to reconnect the avulsed nerve. But I suppose it depends on where it is avulsed etc. Mine was at C5-C6 connection - right at Erb's Point (although there is debate about this based on my surgical records from three different doctors as to what nerves were cut etc). If yours are torn right at the spinal cord then they might not be able to be put in...so I think it depends on how and where they were avulsed.

Hi Kath,
I was told pretty much the same thing as you. The team at Mayo diagnosed me with C 6,7,8 and T1 avulsion, which implies that the roots were torn away from the spine, and grafts were not an option to restore those nerves. Instead they did a free muscle transfer and innervated it with part of my intact brachial plexus, hoping that I can get some elbow flexion back. That was about 5 months ago, so I haven't seen any return yet.

MW

Oh I see what you both are saying, yes mine is pulled out from the spine. I did have the nerve transfer from my leg, they said C7 was barely intact but the transfer did not take. I had a tricep to my bicep transfer and I now have elbow flexion. Thank you for explaining that to me. I remember them saying "once they are unplugged from the spine they can not be plugged back in" In other words, your injury is the worst.
Kath