United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

John had all five nerves avulsed so was a worst case scenario. He had two gracilis transfers (called a Double Doi) at Mayo, as well as phrenic nerve, contralateral C7 & intercostal nerve transfers. He had two major surgeries but nowdays Mayo does it all in one surgery.

At about the six month mark after each surgery (7 weeks apart), John experienced muscle twitches in the target muscles. He now has bicep, tricep, deltoid and can make/release a hand grip. He uses his "bad" arm as a supplement - can carry things looped over the bent elbow or held against the side of his chest. Best of all, he's completely out of pain now - although I don't think everybody experiences this - but since John's brain tells the arm to move & it does (although powered differently now), the pain signals are gone.

Also, in terms of muscle stimulators, John used them extensively at home & also went to PT twice a week, and for awhile, OT also twice a week. The estim kept the muscles contracting & thus not atrophying while the nerves were growing out. Also, it was very good for John to do water therapy in a pool with the OT, since removing gravity from the equation enabled him to do a LOT more range of motion.

Hope this helps! If not, keep asking questions.

Take care,

Ellen

my pt has me using a galvanic muscle stimulator but only once a day shocking each muscle 10 times. do you think i should be doing more and what type of muscle stimulater were you using, brand name so i may look into it also hoe often were you using it?