Hi Tony,

I had a neck dissection performed to remove lymph nodes. During this process, the nerve that controls the right arm was largely dissected away. As a result, ROM (as you guessed) is shot. I can only lift my right arm to about 90 degrees and there is a lot of pain, especially during the PT exercises.

My weight was pretty good to begin with and only lost 10-15 pounds post surgery. I stayed there (and am still there) during RAD. Pretty ideal weight for someone my age.

Regards,

Tom

Hey this is very normal - not sure of it's the nerve or the muscle they cut but regardless you can get your ROM back, physio will help. Been there done that and I'm at 98% perfect now. It took a few months - my left arm and shoulder are only slightly weaker and it's barely noticeable, hugs

Even if the nerve is cut or other things permanently reduce your ROM, there are many adaptive techniques to do about anything you need to do. For many, radiation cuts of nerve and blood flow to muscles that eventually atrophy. The trapezius is one of the first and that controls the pass off from about 50-90 degrees when lifting the arm. Also, some get scapular rotation muscle atrophy and that's the other group of muscles used to lift the arm above straight out.

I lost the ROM in both arms around year 5 but I still try to do jumping jacks. It makes no sense considering how light the arm really is and how little extra force is required to get it moving. If you lay on your back and can get full ROM, it may be somewhat limited, even after PT. I spent a few minutes almost every day for 18 months to do a jumping Jack and it isn't pretty and it wasn't sustainable for long.

There are actually a series of exercises that really do help. I do believe it depends on your surgeon and what they do, but I too couldn't lift my arm past my waist. Now I really do have full range of motion, and that is after rads too. I was told to do passive exercises first. Using a broom just to get the arm used to that movement again then slowly I gained strength and could do it on my own. I did them twice to three times daily while walking my dog (I used his chuck it instead of a broom if I was at the park with him)

Don't give up. Some people do have a more difficult time of it but you'll never know the most you're capable of if you don't try.

Hugs.

Hi Tom,

About that PT, my observation with respect to the pain , is that PT has always been very painful. But pain is transient and gone when whatever is causing it stops banging on it.

When my chest was crushed, one of the strange side-effects was that my right shoulder went "dark" on the nerve-net. I could not raise it or bend it. And being in an army hospital at the time, I had to shave daily so I ended up holding the razor in my right hand, and moving it around my face with my left.

I started PT for my right arm/shoulder very soon after, and in a few weeks, my arm/shoulder was working again. That PT was excruciatingly painful, but it got better and restored the arm. Please don't get tempted to short the PT just to avoid the transient pain lest you turn a transient disfuncton into a permanent one. I know a LOT of people who do/have done EXACTLY that.

An ironic aside; The PT team consisted of a Nurse and a senior NCO. The NCO had a very pronounced condition called "Drop Foot," in which nerve damage makes the foot go off-net. That prevents the the Achilles tendon from being exercised, and it shortens under the normal tension it operates under.

PT for such a condition, like all PT I've encountered, is quite painful, and this NCO apparently decided to avoid it. Bad strategic move, I'd say.

I walked out of the hospital the next day, 37 days after being admitted DoA. And I was medically cleared to go back to jumping out of airplanes 32 days later.

[Caveat and disclaimer: The following information is from Jan, '67. Medical advances since then MAY have made some of it obsolete.]

Nerves are a bit tricky. Just before I returned to Vietnam I had a very skilled nerve specialist run a series of tests on me to determine the state and prognosis for my nerve-healing. He told me that most cut nerves do regenerate by producing new growth of the nerve cell, from the cut to the connection point with the destination and do so at the approximate rate of 1.2 cm/month.

Measure the distance (in cm) from the cut to the muscle that is off-net, divide by 1.2 and you know APPROXIMATELY how long it will take to complete the healing. Also, if significantly more time goes by and the muscle still has not recovered function, it's likely that the nerve involved is not going to regenerate.

Nerves damaged at the connection with the spinal cord (I have some of those) do not regenerate.