Quote:
Originally Posted by Patricia Cox
My husband is only 4 weeks out with bilateral. He is already frustrated. Right arm has little function. Left is more useful except that he had some numbness in his fingers before surgery and it is worse now but of course he is right handed. Neither can go to the top of his head or get behind him. He doesn't have any one arm that is close to normal. He can't dress independently or get out of bed. His scores ranged from 0 to three.
Waiting around is going to be hard.
His surgeon did talk about nerve transfers. There was no timeline yet.
We are getting a little home health care, but mostly they have not given us much we can do to make things easier. The exercises will be helpful eventually. I have to help him even lift his arms for some of them.
I have read a little about the stimulator. Reading about putting in the effort has halped as well.
I think you should recover faster. Shoulders should be soon.
My husband can do nothing with biceps. Lost all strength. That seems to come later.
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Hi there,
I'm sorry to hear of your husband's misfortune in having this happen to him as well. It is a frustrating road to travel since so few seem to know much about the issue at large.
I am getting ready to end six months of occupational therapy. I have regained what I imagine to be about 75% of the use of my right arm. First came increased range of motion; you are correct (in my experience, at least) that strength will come later; it did with me. The bicep functions ok again, it's the deltoids that refuse to come back fully for me at this point. I cannot raise the arm even to shoulder height, nor can I eat properly with it yet...I can eat, but in a 'shovel' type method the therapists say is a form of compensation that uses the bicep rather than the deltoids. It looks a bit odd to say the least, so I try to eat with my left hand when in public. I have a follow up with the surgeon next week. The therapists tell me I'm at a point where the sessions aren't showing significant improvement anymore so are recommending that I continue at home with the exercises they have provided and 'incremental' improvements will continue for the next year or two. We'll see what the surgeon has to say.