1. Will my arm ever get better?
Please remember that the following extracts from message board postings are all written by indivuduals referring to their own unique Brachial Plexus Injury and set of circumstances. No two injuries are identical.
"In my case, no, but I found I could handle it. Took a long time for that to sink in, though......"
'My arm didn't get better, although I had intercostal nerve grafts to regain elbow movement. I got over the loss pretty quickly, a matter of weeks. It doesn't bother me now."
"No, it (mine) won't, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest."
"I don't know, I haven't seen it lately....i.e. no."
"It could, everyone is different. I had surgery and mine has gotten significantly better, although it's a long way from where it was before the accident."
"No, is the short answer for me, the total bpi I suffered as most of us now know generally means the arm's had it. It's not easy to ask medical staff questions when you're traumatised and if you were young, as I was when it happened, you may feel total belief and trust in anything you are told......I lived in false hope of a recovery for many years which in hindsight.....meant that I refused to come to terms with my injury and move on....this was a bad thing for me. "
"I had one nerve intact...I had a repair job on one other nerve and it gave me full bicep control back....more useful than it sounds, I can bear hug a 22' computer monitor or a car wheel........I had a tendon transfer to give me better grip but that wasn't as successful....now I ride a motorbike again, climb mountains and build rockets...I'm doing more than I used to. "
"My injury probably isn't as bad as some and worse than others....the muscles that have improved all work with gravity, my arm just hangs there pointing to a spot by my right shoe, fine if there's a pound coin on the floor next to me, otherwise, not.....you do learn to adapt, but it doesn't help if you dwell on how much easier things were with two arms"
"Arm in my case never got better, had it chopped off. Best thing I ever did, but that was MY story, everyones circumstances vary enormously."
"Yes, I've been told I will 65-75% back, my injury is still only 10 months old so my arm is getting better as the months go on."
