Originally Posted by Dr_Smith

I am/was an avid golfer until 14 months ago. Played twice a week and had a 7 handicap. Then one morning in May of 2004 I woke with extreme pain down my right arm and I couldn't lift the arm. My right scapula was winging like you wouldn't believe. After many visits to specialists I was diagnosed with spontaneous brachail plexus neuritis, meaning an inflammation of the brachial plexus leading to damage to my long thoracic nerve leading to paralysis of my serratus anterior muscle and spinal accessory nerve which feeds the upper trapezius (now also paralyzed). I'm 14 months into this and there has been no recovery. They say if there is no recovery by 24 months then it's not going to recover, at which point I have a choice of living with the paralysis or having a muscle grafted from my leg into my back. Suffice to say, currently my golfing is limited to watching Tiger on TV. What caused the damage - no idea and never will - could have been the flu that I had 6 weeks prior, could have been yardword that I did 4 weeks prior, or sometimes it just "happens". Sometimes it's hard to keep your chin up so most of the time I try not to think about it...