Glad you were able to find that other link, as it is more current.....and thats great that you are taking the "bull by the horns", if you are not getting the answers from the ones that are supposed to be trained & educated & willing to "think outside the box" then yes you need to be our own advocate!

If you take the time to read any of my past posts, you can get the idea that I have dealt with more than 1 arrogant Doc who just wanted to pass me by....prior to 4 years ago or so I never had issues with my health.....after the 3 surgeries in 2011 it has been a struggle to be positive however now I am trying very hard to go "with the program" and follow this Docs advice.

Look forward to seeing if the info I relayed to you will be something your docs will be willing to investigate and if it may help in your diagnoses.

chloecaey

I will have that flexion&extension MRI done; I've also got a referral to a hand specialist, because the spine doctor doesn't think there is anything wrong at all with my spine, judging by the normal MRI, there is not a hint of anything abnormal. The hand specialist will most probably want to see my EMG also.

Has anyone here found any real help from a hand specialist? What can they do?

Hi,

I'm translating my diagnostic results from 2006 (as they are in German), and wonder if I could post them here, or send someone? I would love mrsD to have a look on them. Also, they have found a "Proportional disturbance of the blood-liquor-barrier", this is translated literally from German. I don't know if that's the same as blood-brain-barrier. And I don't know if that's significant. Can anyone help with that?

You can try... can't make too many promises however.

Things can be very different in Germany... they have lots of drugs there that we don't have here, for example.

I don't want to really convert all figures from SI units to conventional either...that can take a long time doing. But I'll glance over them. If there are ranges provided that would help.

Thanks, I will send them to you when ready.

I will just paste their conclusions from two EMG tests:

1 test:
Elektrophysiol. findings: Neurographically, regular sensory and motor potentials in all examined nerves of the upper limb. In EMG only in the muscles supplied by the radial nerve there are signs of chronic neurogenic alterations without evidence of pathological spontaneous activities; no fasciculations demonstrated reliably in EMG.
Conclusions: Suspected chronic neurogenic damage to the muscles supplied by the right radial nerve; no reliable evidence of plexus lesion or radiculopathy.


2 test:

Elektrophysiol. findings: EMG found only in first dorsal interosseous muscle one-time path. Spontaneous activity in the form of PSW, here (also, presumably, in M. abductor pollicis brevis right) also short fasciculations; furthermore, slightly increased polyphasic rates in all examined muscles, increased amplitudes of the MUAPs and reduced interference pattern (at partially submaximal tension).
Conclusions: Also in the hand muscles supplied by the ulnar nerve and median nerve, there are signs of chronic neurogenic alterations and a slight indication of acute denervation in this area; findings thus go beyond an isolated radial nerve lesion.

Seen a hand specialist today. He is an orthopedic surgeon, operates also on the nerves. His initial idea was: there is no nerve entrapment, and certainly not in plexus brachialis. He wants to see my EMG to be sure there is or is not an entrapment somewhere else - gonna do that tomorrow.

Also, he thinks a surgery could restore some functionality in my right hand, but the nerves are probably beyond repair after so much time.

He confused me, saying my muscles were not wasted.

I'm getting tired of the doctors.

He also named a neurologist, who apparently takes the issue of any potential deficiencies seriously, so that might be my next point of call.