Nicked nerve

I've had lots of pain in my left arm that shoots  down to my hand up to my shoulder. Had my PM replaced on 4/23 and at the time, the nurse botched a very painful attempt at an IV in my arm. Recently my Drs nurse has evaluated my arm, it's bruised and still painful to the touch. Since there is no redness, or heat around the spot, she feels there is no blood clot. Dr thinks the nurse nicked a nerve when trying to start IV., and recommends  I need to rest my arm and not use it very much. Anyone had anything like this?

3 Comments

Not right symptoms for nerve damage due to botched IV

by crustyg - 2020-05-03 15:45:27

The median nerve is the one most likely to be damaged by a really deep dig with an IV line+stylet, but it should produce only lower arm pain, not upper.

Remote diagnosis is always fraught with risk: the presence of upper arm pain makes me wonder if you have a cervical spine nerve root problem which has nothing to do with a botched IV attempt (but could, conceivably, be related to a PM box change).

I would be wary of 'resting' an arm for any length of time, as that way lies a frozen shoulder which will lead to months of painful, physio-driven recovery.  Shoulder, elbow, fingers do not like being immobilised and can take a long time to regain the full range of movement.

HTH.

Shooting pain down the length of the arm.

by Selwyn - 2020-05-03 16:21:25

I entirely agree with crustyg. Pain that shoots down the arm is caused by nerve irritation from the upper reaches of your body. If you like, it is the equivalent of the sciatica type pain in the leg comming from the spine, but in your case the arm.  The nerve can be trapped in the neck, or even around the collar bone and pacemaker if on that side. The consent form you signed should have warned about this as it is not uncommon.   Generallly speaking moving the neck and shoulder /upper arm is likely to worsen the pain - and that gives the diagnosis of site.  Why the nerve should be irritated is another question. The vein the lead goes into is very near to the nerves of the arm ( brachial plexus- see https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db5FXWgXkAAUDpU.jpg  )

There is a discussion of the problem on this Club site, see:

 ROVERCAR  2012-08-27

See also medical literature ( complete with gory pictures) : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580703/

 

 

Did you get new leads?

by CyborgMike - 2020-05-09 03:20:04

Did you get new leads with the new box?  Leads often get run through one of the main veins from the left arm into the heart. On the arm side the vein gets cut and capped. I know for me that gave me all kinds of serious left arm pain while it healed itself over 3-4 weeks. 

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