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Brachial Plexus Neuritis and treatment

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Posted 2/20/2013 11:00 PM (GMT 0)
My daughter woke up one morning with numbness in her left arm.  It eventually ended up being very painful in her left hand, she was numb and the pain was severe.  She has had all tests that can be done, and they came up with this diagnosis.  Put her in the hospital for 6 days on prednisone infusions, and then she had to go have infusions done every week.  This has been going on since November of 2012.  She just finished up the infusions, its been two weeks without infusion.  She still has numbness in her hand, and is still painful, she also is so tired she finds herself falling to sleep driving or just watching tv.  Now she has terrible stomach problems,  Can you tell me if this is all normal, or have they misdiagnosed her.  I would hate to think she has been through all of this since Nov and being treated for the wrong thing.  SHe was in excellent health is 33 has three children, 3 dogs and a husband has a very active life, but her energy is gone.  SHe is also depressed, agitated and has some panic attacks, cannot sleep at night.  Is all this normal after coming off Prednisone infusions?    We would really appreciate any one out there, that has been through this.  I myself was thinking of a pinched nerve in the shoulder area which compressed nerves in her hand.  This has been a long journey and my daughter is some better, but not alot after six weeks of prednisone infusions.
Posted 2/21/2013 6:47 AM (GMT 0)
Hi and Welcome to HealingWell. It sounds like your daughter could
have a pinched never. I myself don't like being on pred because
of the side effects from the drug. Also has she been to a Rheumy doctor?
Posted 6/26/2013 12:53 AM (GMT 0)
Hello Redwards,

You haven't posted for a while and so I hope this gets to you.

My husband came down with a pretty severe case of Brachial Neuritis about 2 years ago. He lost the use of both arms and also partial use of one of his hands. He is not fully recovred yet, but he has made really good progress considering where he was when his symptoms first started.

Then, just over a year ago, I personally started having health issues, including severe seizures. I went through multiple tests and with no diagnosis made of what was wrong. At the time, I said to my husband "Isn't this something else? What is the chance of both of us developing such horrible neurological issues within less than a year of each other?"

Gratefully, I finally did receive a diagnosis. I have lyme disease and am a regular member on the Lyme Disease forum. I was writing in the Lyme forum here on Healing Well and telling someone that nerve damage does heal. I was using my husband as an example. That got me to thinking "Hmm. I wonder." So I googled lyme and brachial neuritis. I got an instant hit. Brachail Neuritis can be a first symptom of lyme disease:

"Parsonage-Turner syndrome, also known as acute brachial neuritis or neuralgic amyotrophy, can be caused by various infectious agents. We report on four patients who experienced Parsonage-Turner syndrome as the first manifestation of Lyme disease."

I am not saying that your daughter has Lyme disease. But, I think it is a possibility. Especially given her other symtpoms. Please consider going to the Lyme forum in Healing Well and read the "New to Lyme? Start here." thread at the top of the page. It may be helpful to you.

Wishing you and your daughter all the best.
Thrive.
Posted 12/17/2013 2:57 PM (GMT 0)
Beat brachial neuritis!

I was afflicted with a case of brachial neuritis just over one year ago. The run up was fairly typical. I had the flu shot, and two days later the right upper quadrant of my body went completely haywire. First was the onset of incredible pain, the partial paralysis, followed by sudden muscular atrophy.
It took me about three weeks to figure out what had happened to me. It also took about three weeks before the pain subsided enough for me sleep at night.

Once I realized what the problem was, I went about trying to solve it. Being right handed, and also an avid weight lifter, losing 85% of the strength in my arm did not impress me. There was little clear cut information on what to do to fix this issue. Advice I came across was not particularly aggressive. The prognosis appeared very bleak. My whole body had become twisted and unbalanced due to the wasting of my right arm and shoulder. I was concerned the structural problems would lead to arthritis in the arm, and degeneration of the discs in my back and neck.

I had been logging all of my workouts at the time my arm stopped working, so I had a good record of the entire rehab process. I started actively and aggressively rehabbing the arm three weeks after that initial night in the hospital. My plan was to rebuild the area using bodybuilding protocols. These protocols are ideal for growing muscle, so that is what I chose.

Every five days I put the arm through a workout designed to stimulate muscle growth. This workout consisted of a horizontal pushing move, horizontal pulling move, vertical pushing move, vertical pulling move, hammer curl, tricep isolation move, and grip work with spring loaded grippers. Since there were so many movement patterns, I only did one or two set of 8-12 reps per exercise. I used a linear progression pattern to advance the resistance over time. I simply added a little weight or an extra rep every five days. Also, I had to exercise the right arm independently from the left, otherwise the left did all the work. Dumbells, cables, and bands worked well for this. The other four days, I just tried to use the arm as much as possible. Washing windows, brushing teeth, scrubbing floors etc.
These workouts were ugly. Due to the paralysis, form was terrible, and the pain was intense. Advil was helpful. Knowing that the problem was neurological, and not structural helped as well. I pushed it knowing that I could not generate enough force to do real damage. I fought for progression.
I kept working my other body parts as well. However I had to use move like the hip-belt squat to avoid overloading my messed up spine.

I modified my diet to include lots of B vitamins. Liver, sunflower seeds, fortified cereals and so forth are high in these vitamins. Those vitamins were supposed to speed healing of the nerves. Otherwise, I ate a clean high protein diet.

Any way, after one year of fighting and struggling, the arm is back to full strength. The back and shoulder have straightened out as well.
I just wanted to share my experience since I have read so many sad stories about this problem. It seems like the approach I used worked. I have all the specific workouts logged and I am willing to share them. My name is Glenn Spear. Private message me on Facebook and I will help if I can.

Sincerely,

Glenn Spear
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