The Brachial plexus Chronicles #2 – 3 weeks later – C7 returns

[continuing the saga of what happened after my mastectomy, when I woke up from surgery to find that my left arm was paralysed.  I apologise if this seems like wallowing in the experience, but I’m writing this partly as therapy, and also for any other poor bugger who has to go through what I did.  I remember hunting on the internet for similar experiences, to discover there was nothing.  This was totally outside the realm of most mastectomy patients.  Hopefully anyone going through the same will walk with me and know what to expect and know you are not alone!]

Electromyography without the Sound Effects. photo credit: faithmedical.com

Three weeks after the mastectomy, I had to go back to the hospital for another electromyography (EMG), a type of muscle test.

A needle is inserted through the skin into the muscle tissue.  This needle is connected to an oscilloscope that measures the activity of the nerve.

On this second visit, I asked to see the results from the test conducted two days after the mastectomy.  For some reason, although I had asked (and so had the physiotherapist), the results were not made available which made me very suspicious.

Mastectomy #8D: When disaster strikes (Part 4) … nerve tests

Preface – Why I write about my mastectomy. 

Yep, been there … done that …

Before my mastectomy, in the search for reassurance, I scoured the internet for first person experiences.  

Some of the posts I read left me reeling, and thinking “there but for the Grace of God …”.  

And yet I read on, devouring the suffering (just as passers-by rubber-neck a traffic accident), because it was strangely addictive, a bit like porn (except no one deliberately goes through a mastectomy to make money!)

[I never thought that I would someday join this group of exclusive women in providing my own personal horror story.]