Parsonage-Turner Impacts

There is not a lot of complete information out there on PTS about how it impacts the lifes of those who have it. From my experience, too little is made of the impact this can have on someone unlucky enough to get it- for whatever reason. People see it impact the right shoulder most of the time, and assume it only impacts the right shoulder. People with acute cases and a known one time cause do not appear to have impact elsewhere, so no one looks to see if that is the case with all. They just seem to assume it. If doctors do notice impacts on the other side, they make the wrong conclusions about the cause.

No one who looked at me in the earlier days of my problem even had a clue what this was all about, even after they had agreed with my diagnosis that I had found on the internet. They still assumed that it only impacted my right side, and that I would get better like most patients. Now that I know the overall impact on my left arm and hand, and my legs is a real thing, and not just in my imagination, or my fear, I can think back on my life at the time of my original hand problems and remember details that tell me that this was impacting me all over, even shortly after my thumb and index finger became paralyzed in 2000.

At this time in 2000, I had played guitar and banjo to some extent. I was never satisfied with how I played, but that is a different matter. I had certain things that I could always play, even if I had set the things down for a number of years between attempts. When my right hand became impacted, I tried to play to see if I could still do my finger picking right handed with the loss of movement to my thumb and index finger. Oddly enough, the problem I saw was that my left hand seemed to respond too slowly to make the chord changes. Even with practice, the speed did not increase at all, and my overall ability to make the chords correctly was diminished by a lack of strength. I assumed it must be something like arthritis, even though at that point, my left hand did not feel like that should have been a problem. Maybe it was related to the PTS that I did not know about at that time.

Around that same time, I had been a fairly consistent bike rider, usually in the area of 20-25 miles a week. I know that is a minimal amount for a real avid bike rider, but I am not talking about having been Lance Armstrong. I had a real job, and just rode for my own pleasure mostly on a weekend. My point is that at that time around 2000, my legs would have been in the best overall shape they had been in since I was very young. Yet, shortly after my hand problem started to manifest, I started to notice that my legs became fatigued very easily, and if I tried to do certain things I would have to stop because my legs would start to shake from the muscles being overused. It never occurred to me that anything might be wrong. I never put this leg fatigue together with the left hand slowing down in my guitar playing or linked both of those to my right hand trouble. Why would I have put those isolated symptoms together? I am sure any doctor I may have approached about it would have laughed at me. It was obvious my trouble was only in the right hand.

I do not mean to suggest that anyone else diagnosed with PTS would have my same range of symptoms. For all I know, I am the only one. But, just in case you have noticed some other strangeness in your own PTS that is not related to what commonly occurs, do not just ignore it, or go on blindly believing that no other limb can be part of this. Keep open minded about it.

When my right hand had problems, the weakness in my right arm was attributed to my not using my right arm. Actually, that weakness was due to PTS and the loss of muscle mass and control it contributes to. When my right shoulder became impacted by its own issue, the weakness I mentioned I had in my left arm was attributed to my overuse of my left arm to compensate for the loss of my right arm strength. It really was due to the PTS again showing me that in my case, it has a bilateral nature. When my legs started to really show they were impacted, it was not from physical inactivity. It was the PTS again, showing that whatever the cause of the attack may have been, it did not specifically limit itself to one region of the many plexus areas, and it did not limit itself to only one side.

I remain weak in both arms, and my hands seem to have lost fine motor control. Just yesterday, I had major pain in the right side of my neck. I wonder what that means. I know this seems to be ongoing with me anyway. What am I going to lose control of next?