United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello all, I'm new to the board. I'm also new to indepth research of my daughter's injury. She is 4 years old and from my understanding she has a "mild" case of brachial plexus. When she was born, she couldn't move her right arm at all. Now she functions so that no one knows she has a problem. No surgeries, just physical therapy and a few splints since she was 2 months. I discovered about 6 months ago that there are some corrective surgeries available. My concern is this...When she puts her hands on her hips(with assistance of course), her shoulder comes forward. I hate the way it looks, but her therapist said that it is because the back muscles are not strong enough to hold her scalpula in place. After reading some of the posts here, I see how there are "joint" concerns from some of the parents. Can someone please expain to me how you would know if her joint is damaged?...Be ready you guys, I'm going to be asking a lot of questions.

hi Shanta and welcome...

I would highly recommend taking her to a bpi specialist. Where do you live? (maybe there is one close by?). Many of them also do video evaluations which works well if the closest one is far.

Do you live near PA or in PA? I am asking because we are having a bpi gathering on October 5th and Dr. Nath from Texas Childrens Hospital will be there and doing this great bpi presentation. He will also be reviewing video tapes with parents.

About your question about joint damage - I guess the only way you can be sure is if you get an xray or ct scan? and then the arm would have to be positioned correctly to 'see' it (and not have it masked). But a bpi specialist would be able to explain so much better.

There is an article written up (I think it's at texas website http://www.texaschildrenshospital.org - patient care center - brachial plexus)that says that even children with less severe injuries show up at around age 5 with 'issues'.

I'm not really sure what it is exactly that you are seeing in your daughter's posture but I will say that people are doing electrical stimulation to strengthen back muscles (http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/estim.html) and families are also using kinesiotaping (http://www.kinesiotape.org). So there may be a non-surgical approach or a surgical approach. That's why it's important to contact a specialist.

Ask your questions... we are ready and you can ask as many as you want.

-francine

I have a ten year old, we did not know there was any help for him until he was 8... the people here have really helped us... He had the MODQUAD surgery last year. we have great reults.