“In 2008, I underwent ulna nerve transposition surgery to move the nerve close to my elbow. I was in pain and my hand was numb most of the time. I couldn’t hold objects with my hand because of the numbness and loss of strength in that arm from the elbow to my hand.
I was unaware at the time that Dr. Shehadi did ulna nerve surgeries. Other family members of mine had been patients of Dr. Shehadi’s so I was familiar with his surgery successes and his compassion for his patients. It wasn’t until I was 9 weeks post-op from having my ulna nerve surgery done by another physician at a well known orthopedic clinic that I learned that this surgery was in the expertise of Dr. Shehadi.
I was in Dr. Shehadi’s office with my daughter for her appointment when Dr. Shehadi noticed I was struggling with my arm trying to find a comfortable position. Even after surgery I was having many of the same symptoms as before I went in for the procedure. The other physician stated that it could take six months for me to see improvement because of how much the nerve had been pinched and I believed him. I was trying to be patient but I was becoming increasingly frustrated with my results from the surgery. When Dr. Shehadi saw me struggling at my daughters appointment he asked me how many weeks post-op I was. He stated that I should have had relief by now, but some surgeons don’t move the nerve over enough for the best results and from the tiny incision it looked like that is what the prior surgeon did. Dr. Shehadi offered to fix what the other surgeon had done incorrectly. I choose to have a second ulna nerve transposition surgery this time done by Dr. Shehadi. He explained how he would correct the prior surgery and I would have a bigger incision to move the nerve over to the correct placement and what I could expect after surgery in terms of healing and getting my use of my arm and hand back. I could have saved myself months of pain and discomfort, not to mention having surgery twice if I only would have known that this fell into Dr. Shehadi’s area of expertise. After surgery, I had improvement of all my symptoms and each day I got better in terms of pain, numbness and ability to use my hand and arm again. I could tell a difference between the two surgeries and I felt completely different after Dr. Shehadi’s revision of the ulna nerve for the better because I had relief as soon as I had the surgery. I only had the recovery from the surgery to tend with, not the ailment too.”