United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

for those of you that have gotten full motion, I have a few questions?

How long after your injury, did you gain motion?

Was there any surgeries involved, or came back naturally?

Was the nerve cut or just stretched and intact?

Number one doctors are not all aware that a secondary but painful condition can occur after they have "fixed" by surgery PT or whatever and that you should be fine. Some call it RSD but it has a new name as CRSP 1 OR 2. If you have temperature changes, swelling or any discolorations of the effected extremity you could in fact be suffering from this condition. What happens is the brain that controls pain receptors bascially forgets to turn them off..nice huh!!! You need a pain doctor to acess if you have this disorder or perhaps you have more injury that has not been fixed. This is my own prob on top of RSD which makes surgery a pain. I have to get stellate ganglion blocks before any surgery so my RSD does not spread.

I am one of a few thousand in the US that have 13 ribs instead of 12. Its called TOS. I had surgery to remove the left one Nov 14 and was doing well...Symptoms present like a BP injury severe pain numbnesss tingling etc..anyway 1month after surgery I had a severe whiplash injury which streched my LTN nerve to nearly torn. In fact EMG results scared the neuros into thinking it was torn until 3months later it showed baby signals after I went to New Orleans to the supposed "grandfather" of peripheral nerve surgery...NO help there just told it may get better on its own it may not...I was not gonna sit on my butt and wait and see. I was in pool PT cause land PT hurt too much. I went to see Dr.Nath out in Houston and had surgery for LTN decompression. It gave me back my function and pain relief was instant but he said I had major scar tissue on the BP area and all my pain (I still have some in my elblow and numbness and tingling in the forearm and some fingers that was left was due to that so now I have to go to another BP surgery specialist for TOS that I now have on both sides. Im going to Annest in Colorado for these once I quit smoking..his rules. I have spoken to many many of his patients and he said the whiplash could have caused more bleeding further down in the BP area but Dr.Nath dosnt do rib recestions so hes the #1 specialist for that Dr.Annest I mean. My RSD presented with swelling cold then hot red hands, with bruising on the hand and forearm well it looked like bruises but isnt. You could still have more damage not fixed...a recent EMG could tell you more. If its your LTN messed up Dr.Nath may could help you but the further from injury to surgery the chances get less and less. Me Im for chances..Im sick of taking 6 different pain pills or more. Be proactive with your doctor ask for a referral to a pain clinic or rather insist on one also insist on a recent EMG and it wouldnt hurt to send a copy to Dr.Nath. Hes very friendly and will talk to you by phone or email as well as DR.Annest. Sending him your story and EMG MRI or whatever other tests wouldnt hurt for a few other opinions. Dr.Nath and Dr. Annest is straight forward. They will both tell you if you are a candidate for surgery..

Anyway as I said find out about RSD or CRSP first and see if you have that and only a specialist can tell you that. Good luck and hope I helped. Amelia