Kelly,

I saw Dr. Wilson at the Cleveland Clinic. He is not a neurologist, but works in the Adult Neurology Dept. and is very good. Unfortunately, he is in high demand and it takes months to get an appointment with him.

I am happy to speak to your father.

I am 13 weeks out from 3-level ACDF (3/15/17) with bilateral c-5 palsy. Prior to surgery I was experiencing loss of function in my left arm due to the collapse of my cervical disc but my right arm was mostly functional. After surgery my right arm was also completely dysfunctional and the left arm remained the same. The surgeon said that monitoring during surgery suggested I would get full function back but so far things aren't improving significantly. I can use my hands and arms below the elbows but can't raise either arm more than 20%--so I can't really drive or even wash my own hair! I am so grateful for the information on this thread. I will post my progress.

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.

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.

Thanks Jastek, if found your post very helpful in a better education of my issue. I had Posterior surgery a week ago. Right cervical three four five Hemilaminectomy, foraminotomy. (no fusion) 60 year old male.
While in recovery I found no use of my right deltoid. Since Im new to C5 Palsy I would be interested in anyone’s experiences. Are exercises useful in the regrowth of the nerves or is it more to keep from getting a frozen shoulder. I read one white paper that talked about the use of steroids, has that been useful for anyone? Also the fact that i had no fusion, positive for rehab?

I've read this thread from the beginning and there are a lot of helpful things.
I had an anterior c5 c6, c6 c7 discectomy and fusion in 2014 with no complications and a posterior c2 c3 foraminotomy and c3 c4 lami with c3 c4, c4 c5 fusion in 2017 that resulted in a c5 right side radiculopathy immediately upon awakening from anesthesia which was "corrected" with a c5 right side foraminotomy 9 weeks later. I am now 6 weeks post op from the corrective surgery and getting pt and ot 3x a week but seeing little progress.
I have the deltoid and bicep paralasys and did not get any therapy during the 9 weeks between surgeries so I've had terrible muscle atrophy. I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and if they have had any progress and if they have followed up with any legal actions.
Sorry I got to writing this before an appointment and didn't get to finish all my thoughts as it takes a while to type...

Serimile - Not sure if the foraminotomy "corrected" your C5 Palsy. Once the nerve is damaged, the only way to correct it is for the nerve to grow back, unless a nerve transfer or nerve graft is done. The foraminal narrowing may have been a contributing cause of the C5 Palsy and that is why they did the foraminotomy. That would have taken the pressure off the nerve root.

Sine you had no therapy in the 9 weeks immediately following surgery, your muscles had no activity and started to atrophy. Keep up the PT. I did not see any real improvement until 3 months, so don't get discouraged.

On the legal front, don't get your hopes up. I live in Ohio and like a lot of states, the laws were against us. I talked to 3 of the top attorneys in my area and all three said the same thing. They agreed that the doctor screwed up, but since my employer continued to pay me during my recovery, the case was not worth the time and effort to get a verdict in my favor. In order to be successful in a law suit against a doctor, you have to prove that they violated the "standard of care" established for doctors. That is a hard thing to prove. In Ohio, malpractice cases have a $250,000 cap on verdicts. This means that the most I could recover from the doctor is $250,000 (absolute bull %$#@). So I was not able to go after the doctor. I have, however, started a campaign to drag this doctor and the hospital through the mud. Might not make a difference, but it feels good telling everyone what a quack this guy is....

Good luck to you and keep pushing on. Don't get discouraged by the delay in recovery. It takes time.

Thanks for posting and keep us updated on your recovery.

For those of you who decide to share your experience here, please keep us updated on your progress. As much as we like to hear your initial story, it is very helpful to hear how your recovery goes. This post is all about helping people understand C5 Palsy and your recovery will help others understand the process.

Peter24 - The exercises really serve the main purpose of keeping your muscles from atrophying and retraining the muscles as they get reinervated. In a small way, they also help the nerves grow. The muscle activity creates electrical signals that help guide the nerves to grow back through their original path.

Steroids are usually only used as an initial treatment to prevent swelling, which can minimize the damage to the nerves. I have not heard of using steroids as an on-going treatment. I would be interested in reading the article.

I don't think your lack of a fusion helps your recovery much. Your recovery is all about nerve regeneration and a fusion (or not) should not impact the nerve's ability to re-grow.

Good luck on your recovery !!

Whoops. In reading my post I see that repeatedly said 'anterior' when I should have said 'posterior.' Apologies. It would be pretty tough to perform a laminectomy from an anterior approach