Phrenic Nerve damage and paralyzed diaphragm: Anyone else have this?

@dondon1 Another patient shared this information about a surgeon, Dr. Kaufman, who does a nerve graft to replace a damaged phrenic nerve for a paralyzed diaphragm. Here is a link to his practice and a paper he authored. I don't have experience with this, but wanted to pass along the information.

"Phrenic nerve paralysis and phrenic nerve reconstruction surgery "
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36031309/

My daughter had the same surgery and lost her voice. It has come back some but we are still waiting. She has also had abdominal pain and nausea since the surgery. All tests and labs are normal. Did you have any persistent abdominal pain after your pneumonectomy?

How is your daughter doing, @dina2474? Has she worked with a speech therapist to help with the recovery of her voice?

Not yet. She hasn’t had enough nausea and pain free days to see a therapist.

Oh my goodness! That sounds so very scary and painful . ❤️‍🩹

I notice this thread is years old. How did it resolve? I’m aware that Phrenic nerve reconstruction to restore diaphragm function is
becoming increasingly utilized.

How is your daughter today?

Dr. Kaufman has an age limit of 67 for nerve graft patients, ie he won't consider you if you are older than this. I recently learned that he sometimes installs diaphram pacers when he does the grafts, which is pretty interesting.

I don't have any imperial data confirming this, but there seems to be a large rise in the number people who have weakened and/or paralyzed left or right diaphragms or both. I am NOT a conspiracy theorist or anti vaccination activist, but I think it has to do with the rise of both COVID and the vaccinations, both of which can seriously harm the phrenic nerve. People who are having symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, lack of stamina, etc. should consider having a SNIFF test (fluroscopy) to determine if they have a weakened or paralyzed diaphragm. Most doctors don't seem to know much about paralyzed diaphragms, so people need to advocate for themselves.

I’m not rejecting that possibility by any means, but in the context of Occam’s Razor , I’m of opinion that my diaphragm issue is that it was bruised, banged, and/or nicked when my left lower Lobe was removed via an opening between two ribs. Camera and irrigation were inserted into two other other openings. So I think I have material inflammation. Which is evidenced by marked improvement when on prednisone.

It is really helpful when you have a specific event where your phrenic nerve or diaphragm was injured that resulted in a weakened or paralyzed left or right diaphragm or both. I'm glad your treatment is helping you and hope it will restore full function of your diaphragm. Paralyzed diaphragms can result from accidents, operations, viruses, vaccinations, etc...and most of us who have had the condition with no symptoms for decades will never know what caused ours, sigh. Most doctors recommend waiting up to two years after the recent onset of a Paralyzed Diaphragm before having any type of surgical procedure to see if the phrenic nerve will heal itself. It sounds as though your is...which is outstanding news!!!

I don’t really have a treatment. Prednisone helped but that was transient since I can’t stay on it. I just don’t have any evidence it is phrenic nerve related. Happy to pursue that, but I’m betting their first counselas you suggest, will be “wait”.
I’m just opining that the logical root cause is likely some type of trauma related to the surgery.