United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Kate P is right, 9 days old is too soon for neuroma. Sorry... I didn't notice the age. In an older baby, a lump could be a neuroma.

"Guest"... nice nasty post. I'm not a doctor but I am a health care provider and carefully research anything I say here (including other threads if you were also referring to that). Maybe I will start providing links to my sources if I ever post here again (even though others who post medical 'fact' do not). I'm not sure I will post here again because I had hoped to find support and people with similar experiences here and so far it has caused me nothing but more stress and dismay because of a few bad apples. I'm not "diagnosing" anything. My baby had a lump in his sternocleidomastoid muscle from torticollis and our PM&R doc spent awhile explaining different causes of palpable lumps after BPI to me... I posted what I had been told by the specialist and what I have read in reputable sources.

On a site like this you will read the opinions of moms, dads, OBPI adults, lawyers, health care providers, etc. Some people feel their doctor was at fault, some do not. I am under the impression that this forum is a vehicle for information, shared experiences, and opinions as well as a place to "vent" sometimes. I don't mind if someone posts an opinion different from my own - like everyone else here I will decide what I believe and what information is valuable to me. At least I am not posting as "guest" and using it as an excuse for nastiness.

Hey Steff,

I hope you keep posting. I think it's hard for the "older" parents to see new parents come along filled with new-found information while they've been slogging in the trenches for years. But as I see it, frankly that obsessive-research-stage that newer parents go through benefits us all in this constantly progressing field of treatment.

As someone told me at the beginning of our journey (was it only last year??), parents dealing with this injury sometimes have a lot of anger to deal with, and it comes out misdirected at times. I've been the giver and receiver of that type of anger myself. Keep up the research and the posting, and please keep sharing with us what you find. It might be hard for some to take, and heck sometimes you might be completely wrong! But that doesn't mean you shouldn't share.

Try not to let the few bad apples get you down.

Kate

Kate- nice post:) Javier's was a torn and strethced sterno cleidomastoid too. My older son (non-BPI) also had the same thing from SD and a difficult birth.

Thanks for asking, Marlyn

P.S Finding a lump on your kid can be quite frightening. I guess because we equate lumps with terrible tumors and cancer.

The guest post has been deleted.
Sometimes the moderators don't know if a post will cause offense or not and when we find that a guest post is beginning to cause problems, then we WILL delete it.

And sometimes the 'guest' posting doesn't know either how a post will be interpreted.

Anyway, this one is gone.

On another note, to Alexdad who began this thread, if you would like to be added to the Outreach mailing list, send me (nancy@ubpn.org) your mailing address and I will add you and send you some back issues to read.

Nancy Birk
UBPN President

Kate, I am biting my tongue. I would like to make a point tho. Would you please consider, it could be BECAUSE of us older parents, going back for treatment, against ALL odds. And the Education we brought to the doctors, O.T's, & P.T.s, because WE refused to give up and go home when we were told to do so repeatedly.

Angela,

Point well made. I don't disagree at all. I was trying to encourage a new parent, not put down older parents (thus the "war" analogy... many of you have been fighting this war for years and new parents are reaping the benefits of your persistence.) But remember you were also new to BPI, once upon a time. Just as it's not right to disregard the experience of your "elders", neither is it right to put down the newcomer. I'll have to find the quote again, but it goes something like "Old man, you must excuse the young. You know what it is like to be young, but he knows not what it is like to be old".

Not that you are "old" old, mind you! But I hope you get the point. And thanks for biting your tongue

Kate

Kate, I appreciate your reasonable response. I am glad we cleared the air on this.

At times I use an idea similar to the quote, as a parent of young adult kids, never married, never homeowners, and not mothers yet.

Steff, I too am sorry you were attacked for your knowledgeable post. I was suprised at how nasty and insensitive the GUEST post was.

I am certainly glad there is more info and better treatment out there now.

I also wish there weren't so many still joining our club.