I am having sub-muscular transposition on Monday and I am scared to death. What should I expect regarding pain. Is there anything I should do to prepare? How long before I can write again??

alane25 wrote:
I am having sub-muscular transposition on Monday and I am scared to death. What should I expect regarding pain. Is there anything I should do to prepare? How long before I can write again??

Greetings Alane, and a Hearty Welcome to the Site!! Have a look around, and you might see some answers to your questions as well as get an idea of what all others have gone through. Ummm ...there are no limits on this site in so far as posting (amounts) per day.

I had the subcutaneous transposition which is where the nerve is moved under a "flap of fat" if you will. My understanding the major difference between what I had and what you will have is the pain might be a bit higher as they will move your nerve under a muscle, and as such, there will be muscle related pain between the surgery itself, and the incision to place the nerve in its "new home." The recovery time isn't a whole lot different from what I have seen on here - just more discomfort due to nerves vs fat in my case.

Timelines - which you probably were already told by your doctor? Surgery usually lasts about an hour, hour and a half. You either receive an epidural like block for your arm, or they use general anesthesia. Most are "out patient", and once you are okay with eating and any pain experienced is controlled, you are released with instructions to follow and most likely a prescription for pain control. They put you in a "half" cast most times - hard cast on the underside, and ace like bandage on the top half. The cast places your elbow in a moderate bend, and starts around mid upper arm to the wrist.

First post op with your doctor will probably be between 6 and 10 days, at which he will most likely remove the cast, check range of motion and status of your incision. My doctor removed my staples at 12 days. If your doctor uses physical therapy (most do), they wait between 4 and 6 weeks most times for the incision to fully (or nearly) heal. My therapy was for 6 weeks, 3 times a week - I had a lot of atrophy with mine.

Many times the "pre-surgery" anxiety is worse than the procedure itself! I hope some of this is of help. Please don't be afraid to ask, as there are many who have had the sub muscular. I might be going through that one myself in the next few months. Take care, and again Welcome aboard!!!

Brenda

Welcome! I've had bilateral sub-musc transpositions. L last Oct and R 4 weeks ago. Really, pain wasn't too bad. Used percocet for 4-5 days pretty much around the clock. Try and stay on top of the pain for the first few days. After that, I just used pain meds as needed. Some days I took them a couple times, sometimes not at all.

I'm about seven months post-op from my L tranposition and occasionally I still have "ouchy" days. Tylenol or motrin take care of it. Also as the nerve started healing, I'd get "zingers", like electrical pulses starting in my elbow and running into my little finger. These have almost totally resolved now in my left. My R side has some issues with hypersensitivity that I've described in other posts-not incisional/post-op pain, but more like nerve discomfort-pain meds don't really help with it.

As for writing-I am right hand dominant. When I had my bulky dressing/splint in place,(for 8 days) it was difficult to write. Docs vary but from what I've learned usually 1-3 weeks in a splint. As soon as I had the splint removed I was back in business.

The most important thing to remember, in my opinion, is to be patient. I think it was at least 4 full months before I felt that I had made any progress at all with my left side. I still had residual clawing and was horribly weak. Now I am so glad that I did it. I know there's still room for improvement & I'm working on it, but I'm amazed at the function I"ve regained. I hope my right turns out to be as successful. I think my entrapment & compression was much more severe in the right, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed (left only, lol) that I'll have as good a response as I had in the left.

Best of luck on Monday. Let us know how you're doing.

Chris

Thank you both for your helpful information! I am just so apprehensive about this whole thing! I think it is primarily because I am a teacher and mother of two very active little kids. I think I am so nervous about the pain because 12 years ago I had both of my radial heads extracted. The pain was very intense and I had a difficult time dealing with it. In other words I am just being a chicken! I will let you know how it goes Monday as soon as I am up to typing. Thanks again!