United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Chris~
I acutally know of a couple who is taking their son to China as we speak for the stem cell from nasal cavity procedure. He's nerve damage is worse than ours, he's in a wheelchair. Damage from the waist down. I will keep you posted on the out come as I get info.
Kath in Chicago

I just read through these entries and I was wondering about the statement that say surgery is best done in a four month window. My son who is three is coming up on 6 months and his surgery is on Jan 18th 2007. Do you think this will still be ok? The surgeon says he definitely needs surgery and Masen is having a CT Milogram the day before surgery. He couldn't be seen before nov. of 06 due to him coming out of his coma and being in rehab and then seeing the specialist at Gillette first. They then scheduled his surgery for Jan. TK

herff: very interested to see what happens in that surgery.

tk: with my son they wanted the surgery done with in the 6 month time frame. I think you are ok. When it was 6 months and they weren't sure they went in too look as they felt this was the best time for nerve graphs.
Sue

How is your son now? What kind of function does he have? TK

Sory to hear about your son. Having an injury like this is not any fun.
My doctors are at the Mayo in Mn. also. They are a great team, working with many brachial plexus imjuries. I had the nerve & muscle graph surgery in Feb. of 2006. I am pain meds too. You need to get your son with a doctor that is familiar with this.
Good luck,
Alan

My son did not have avulsions. He never lost his hand. But his bicep, tricep and shoulder where affected. His tri has returned to near full. Shoulder is coming nicely, but the bicep is still slow. No functional movement. In water he is able to move it like normal. Now he can hold it at 90degrees out of water and just this week he picked it up from an arm rest on a chair to his mouth. So it is gaining, it is just a long slow process. They have discussed muscle transfers for Dustin but thought we should wait as they are kind of thinking things will come back more. He is now 14 mos post accident. You should try to talk with Ellen B sounds like her son had similar injuries to your son. He also had surgery at Mayo and has gotten some funtion back. Best of luck and let us know how the surgery goes.
Sue

My son will be a year out from surgery the first of March. He has sensation almost to the elbow. Dr Nath did the surgery. He will have another surgery for the G.M. when the nerve is to the hand. He still has terrible pain. I'm hoping to get him off of the opiates because they don't seem to help much and he has terrible constipation. He also had a head injury and it makes it worse. Thank you for asking. It's been heartbreaking but I'm so glad he's alive....Michele

Alan, did you have alot of pain before the surgery or after? TK