United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Alison,I've been given two names of doctors who have done surgery on bpi's.The first one is DR.Gschwind,that Steve mentioned.She is at the North Shore Private Hospital,St.Leonards in Sydney.The second is Dr.Michael Biggs at the Royal North Shore Hospital,also in St.Leonards.Hope this helps,Geoff.

What country are these doctors in?

Thank you Paul for the details on the Colorado machine.
I didn't find a company website but this link talks
about the machine and shows a picture....in case anyone else in the message board, is interested to see how it looks like:
http://www.oasisllc.com/english/saratoga.htm

Elisa.

hey Paul Im out of surgery its been a little while but the huge incision has heeled very well the procedure went well it wasnt what i had hoped once they got in there c5 c6 c7 were avulsed t1 c8 were still intact but streched and sending very little signal they thout it was best to leave those two alone because if they were growing back they had already made it that far they did a intercostal nereve graft from under the ribcage to the bicep and attached a nerve from my trapezious or other wise known as the camel humps to my shoulder but its still a wait and see game 6months to a year and if all goes well then other options for my hand down the road does every body else have this much truoble typing with one hand.

Its funny you mention typing with one hand , I was just thinking about it. Im pretty fast actually (35wpm), the only thing that gets me is hitting the wrong key if im going fast, then I have to go all the way over to backspace.

I had an intercostal to the bicep done also about 6 months ago. Im seeing increased bicep tone and I have a different feeling. Do you ever try to flex and it seems like you could but you don't? For me its like trying to lift heavy weights, Im trying realy hard, but nothing is happening. But I still can feel that im trying. Anyway good look with your healing.

I thought I'd have a big problem typing with one hand but since I used to type fast with two, I still manage to type fast with one. At first though it was hard & took time to adjust. After a while it was easy to do. The problem I have is writing. I'm a lefty & being forced to write with my right arm is sooo hard! I hate it!!! I cheat all the time by typing everything up & printing it...I really should write more so I get the hang of it. I think I'm in denial...I dont wanna be a righty! Lefty forever!!! I miss being able to use my left arm...

Hey Hdcrash. Tell us more about future options for your hand. That's one of the main things we're concerned about - getting function back that far away from the injury site. I keep hearing about this 18-24 month for muscle recovery, after which it's curtains. Yuk.

Wish us luck, say prayers, light more candles or whatever it is you do at your house... we're off this weekend to the Mayo Clinic MN for Mon-Tues appointments. Yee-HAW (& pass the chitlins - see I read the other threads) - we're so ready to learn more about what exactly is going on in there.

Will report back next week.

Ellen

Hey guys this is chris i just typed that big reply and forgot to log in sorry.

well guys sorry again evedentally my first reply as a guest didnt show up so if theres two sorry about that i still aint that good with computers yet ill try to make this one shorter. but 35 wpm sounds great thats as fast as i was in highschool with 2 hands how did you come up with sarmstrong as a user name i like it i used to be a proffesinal armwrestler right hand sounds like something i would use.Yea i still strain to move my shoulder or arm or fingers and it feels like they are moving but arent. Im dominat left but injured write i used to switch back and forth on a lot of things but i cant imagine writing with my right hand, I was also told the 18 to 24 months before the muscles were to far gone but they told me a little bit about a procedure on down the road that could be done but shoulder and arm function have to stablize first so they didnt go into great detail but what i got out of it was they take accesory muscles from the inside of your legs that shouldnt effect function and im not sure about how they hook them to the nerves but i think they called it a crossover were they use an accesory nerve from the otherside the only downside is that you could lose strength in the good side. Hopefully i got it wright this time good luck hope to hear from you again with more progress.

Another lefty, I love it!!! To be honest with you, I rather have injured my right arm b/c it is sooo hard to switch over to my right & learn from scratch. I havent checked how many wpm I can type but my cousin said I type like a "bat outta hell" so I'm assuming thats fast! So what was the extent of your injury anyways? Looks like your on the road to regain some function back, that is fabulous!!! LEFTY FOREVER HDCRASH! ha ha.