United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I've got a lot of gripes, but I've learned to live with my handi-capability.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, after more than a year of bi-weekly physical therapy, I have nearly full rotation in my arm/shoulder, full use of my hand/forearm, but no shoulder, upper back, bicep, or tricep strength. The main extent of my intury is to the C5 (haven't looked at the DR notes in a while, still feel burned by the hospital). My injury was caused by the crushing blow of a boulder resulting in the stretching of the my brachial plexus. As one of the many doctors said "that boulder was trying to sever your shoulder from your body."

My question is, can I still have some sort of muscle transplant to my bicep or tricep or shoulder or back or etc? or any kind of nerve transplant? or stem cell therapy? or .....?

I'm not finding much hope on the internet.

OUCH!!!! the wait game is not a good idea when it comes to BPI. i was forced to wait 14 months and that was almost too late. if your docs are not BPI SPECIALISTS you will not get proper treatment. look under the resources tab above. there is a list of specialists on here. there is also a dr susan mackinnon in st louis MO that is not listed here, but she is very good. but i would get to a specialist ASAP. i have a lower brachial plexus problem. my hand is what is bad. sounds like you have an upper brachial plexus problem. every one is different. you may be able to still have a successful surgery. just dont wait any longer.

Of course it NOT too late. My husband is two years out and had his intercoastal nerve graft on the 1 yr anniversary of his accident. Had a muscle transfer to give him a bicep almost 2 years after his accident and 6 months after surgery it is showing some signs of nerve activity. So dont lose hope. He is under the care of Thomas Tung which works with Susan McKinnon at Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis, MO. We are also seeing the mayo clinic hopefully this spring for other options. I would strongly recommend getting to either hospital and get an opinion. We live in Miami, FL, pretty big city but no one here is qualified to handle BPI's. I am supremely happy with Dr. Tung, he tries to take any insurance and the care for the patient is unbelievable. They hospital definately caters to traveling patients. Maybe this isnt what cold have been done had we seen Dr. Tung before the 6 month window lapsed, but he definately gave us hope that there are options. You should see Angela's post she is seen att he Mayo Clinic and her results are amazing.