Update on Erik - A neat little story

Here’s a neat little story...

While I was driving last week, I lifted my left arm to the top of my steering wheel with my right hand to stretch it out a bit. I had to use my right arm to move my left since there really hadn’t been any improvement in any of the four muscles that were paralyzed in that skiing accident way back on January 22. I noticed slightly more episodic stinging-type discomfort in my tricep during that moment and when I tried to flex my left tricep… I SAW IT TWITCH! Of course, I was very excited about this visible muscle activity and called Kara right away, but there was really no strength to actually move my elbow joint, just the little bit of visible contraction (1/5 strength for you medical types). I continued to “work it out” by consciously flexing my tricep as often as I could with newfound motivation. So, great news that one of the muscles was at least beginning to be reinnervated, but nothing to report about the deltoid (which controls most normal shoulder movements), supraspinatus (lifting your arm away from your side), or infraspinatus (rotating your arm outward, away from your body).

Again, if you’re new to what’s been going on, here are links to the previous blog posts. I’m sure Kara is proud of me for my contributions to her blog! I was told by a friend that I am now a “blogger” since I have 4 more posts than he does.

1. Initial story with a few pictures (February 6)
2. Description of the first EMG with some videos (March 20)
3. Second EMG and description of the surgery planned for July (May 28)

We can call this one, “Good news from the third EMG!”

Exactly one week after first noticing the activity in my tricep, I had an MRI and my third EMG. This was two days ago now and was scheduled as a pre-operative test with surgery scheduled for July 24, as described in the last blog post from May with some pretty good explanatory pictures. I knew my tricep was improving, but I didn’t know what that meant for the surgery that was already scheduled for next week. Would my doctors want to postpone the surgery to see if the other muscles started to improve, as well? Would they want to leave the tricep alone to see if it continues to heal, but go ahead and operate on the other injured nerves? There is a pretty hard line drawn at six months post-injury for surgical intervention as that’s when surgical results start going downhill. I’m at six months on July 22. These questions would go unanswered until my appointment after the MRI and EMG were done.

The EMG results were even better than I had expected! The neurologist found that my supraspinatus and infraspinatus were showing some signs of improvement, as well! All three muscles have very unorganized activity and the back muscles are still unable to show any signs of flexion on physical exam, but those tiny needles picked up electrical activity from several motor units that are firing in both my supraspinatus and infraspinatus, which is such a blessing!

So, with three of the four muscles starting to improve, albeit minimally, the decision was made to move surgery back to August 13 with another EMG on August 10 and see what kind of improvements my body can continue to make on its own. I will admit I was a little surprised the new date was so soon since it had taken six months to see any improvement and now we’re only going to give it 3.5 weeks before we check for more healing, but we’ll keep praying about it and hope the healing process speeds up!

I think Kara also has some anxiety about the timing of the surgery since #4 will be coming via C-section on August 30 and if my surgery was any later, the stress in our house might be overwhelming. Please keep praying for Kara and the kids as this journey continues. We could never adequately express our gratitude to everyone who has prayed, encouraged, or helped us over the past six months! Thank you so much!!!