United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Rachelcasa: Certainly growing up and living with this injury has had it's impacts but I don't think it has affected my self esteem. For me, my injury was always essentially no big deal to my family and friends. I've never tried to hide the fact that I have the injury and people do notice but not in a negative way. However, I remember once as a teenager I reacted when someone called me a "spas" while playing basketball ("spas" was a common term even 50 years ago). The person who made the remark was a good friend and wasn't refering to my injury and felt very bad when he realized how offensive the remark was to me. Am I conscious of my injury? You bet. I know I have it as I'm punching out this message and, as I said, others notice. It's hard to hide and simply not worth trying. I am often asked how I hurt my arm. When I explain I was injured at birth, the response is usually something like "that's too bad". If the person wants more information, I'll go into the details if appropriate. Usually they won't. No more discussion necessary.

John P.

Michelle
I think everyone jokes around about their arm.(I swore for years I could do the best one handed kart wheels ever!) My new nickname is Nemo. Have you seen the movie Finding Nemo? He has a short fin!! I fell in love with a fish!! *S* Keep your chin up and you'll do great at the University.
Reach for the stars!!!!!

I also had self esteem issues and still have uncomfortable moments. I have bp of the right arm, I cannot shake hands and for certain ethnicities this is considered rude. So I ALWAYS explain myself when shaking hands with certain individuals.I'm in sales so I have to shake hands. I have a tendency to put my left hand on my hip so the shorter arm isn't as obvious or cross my arms. Most of the time I forget about it and don't dwell. I workout, lift weights and do everything as normally as possible. The older I get the less paranoid I am.

Melanie

Melanie

I had to laugh when you said you put your hand on your hip...

I was watching some of the obpi kids at a picnic and those who could put their hands on hips did it the same way I do!

I put my robpi hand on my hip for comfort it supports my shoulder, of course, not the normal way... but with the top of my hand on my hip instead of my palm and I saw some of the kids standing the same way...

I shake hands but so many times people tend to comment on how cold my hand is...

Kath

Shaking hands! I am a right obpi. So it is very bad thing to shake hands with my left hands. People always shake with their right hands and in that case I have problem when meeting people. I try to not to meet with new people and I have almost no friend. Bye

Hi! I am 53 and left bpi.
I know that this injury has affected my self esteem, I have no doubt. I've also worked with some very lovely,
non-bip young ladies over the past years, several of whom had self image problems that made mine look pale in comparison at their age.
I believe that it's possible that our "beauty bound" society has added to our burden of living with an "imperfection."
Sometimes, when I read the postings on this message board from SOME young adults,I fear that they have fallen victim to Madison Ave. along with their injury...and that makes me even sadder.

-Stephanie

Hi! My daugher Brittney is 11 with a left OBPI, and is now in Middle school. I'm sure her self esteem has probably been effected at times but she has more self confidence than most of her friends do. We were talking the other day and she said that some of her friends are so full of themselves at times! LOL She said that one friend is all upset because she is a few pounds heavy, another one won't wear shorts because she thinks her legs are chunky, - and so on - and they all seem to come to Brittney to talk about how awful they think they look. Brittney says she listens and tells them they look alright.... - but she told me that the next friend who comes to her all upset about something silly and she's going to scream, "Hello!!!" "My arms are two different lengths!!!" "Try dealing with THAT one!!!" Then she laughs.... She says her friends never talk about her arm differences - even though her injury is noticeable. I think people are alot more critical of themselves than they are of others. I know that I am.
Christy

Yes and no, it took a long time for me to accept the 3/4 length sleeves they just don't work well. It makes everything pretty obvious. But I'm fine comfortable with myself now. Everything down to my pudgy arm. But oh well.
The only time I don't feel comfortable is when I am doing Yoga arm movements in public, or doing something that people can see my limits.

-Traci

I cannot say that it has affected my self-esteem very much. Not many people seem to notice. I am almost 69 years old. My right arm was completely paralyzed until I was about 3 months old. I was born at home as many babies were in the olden days. I weighed 12 lbs lacking 1 ounce! My poor mother wasn't in very good health and it almost killed her.

Anyway, my mother told me that they worked with me daily doing hot packs and exercises. If I had any trouble learning to crawl or walk no one seemed to remember.

As it turned out, many of the nerves and muscles in my right arm do not function properly and it is noticeably shorter than the left one. I was meant to be right handed but I do almost everything left handed. I do write right handed and crochet right handed. Those are about the only things I can think of. I cannot turn my right hand palm up. It will only go sideways.

As a child, it didn't bother me much except sometimes I needed help getting dressed and still depend on my husband to zip me up or button the back and left side waist buttons. Also he helps with the necklaces and bracelets. I manage to roll my own hair with brush rollers or hot curling brushes. It's impossible for me to use a regular curing iron. I do almost anything behind my head by proping my arm up on a door facing or something and twisting my head.

In my 30's I seemed to lose more nerves and muscles. Had a bout of about 6 weeks of severe pain and found the "goose egg" muscle in my upper right arm had flattened somewhat.

If you sit next to me while driving, you might get punched with my right elbow. It's hard to turn my head to the right to back out of the driveway.

My husband, bless him, goes out and turns the car around for me each time I go out so I can drive out of our long driveway without having to back out. I try to do very little backing up when driving. I have no trouble looking over my left shoulder.

Over the years, the uneven pulling has affected my cervical spine and also my left arm. I have been through many bouts of severe pain in both shoulders, but not both at the same time! Now that I'm taking an aspirin (coated) each day for blood thinning, I find that I have fewer bad bouts of pain with my shoulders, although I'm somewhat stooped - I'm trying to fight it.

One thing I've noticed, but other people don't seem to is that this has affected my whole right side. It is slightly smaller. In other words, even the right eye, right side of my mouth, right nostril, etc., are smaller and make my face a little crooked. I notice it when I see a picture of my face straight on. Does anyone else have this problem? I try not to think about it much but it makes my smile a little crooked.

All in all, I must say, it has not been a huge handicap. When I see other people who's handicaps are so much worse, I consider myself lucky.

By the way, I worked many years as a clerk-typist and secretary. I space with my left thumb. Once I had to take a typing test on a typewriter that had a small space bar placed over to the right side of the typewriter. It really frustrated me. I think I managed to pass the test anyway.

Hi Sarah

Welcome to the Boards.
I am 63 and also right OBPI ... until 4 years ago I thought I was the only one with this "rare" birth injury. I was 11lbs 14 oz.. when I was born in a hospital ... the doctor knew he should have C-Sectioned my Mom, they warned her I was going to be to big and her health was also poor I am her 8th... In NY the C-Section rates were high when I was born. They had to do and immediate cardiograph so they knew something was wrong but did not tell my Mom she discovered it two weeks later when we went home from the hospital.

I was forced to write right handed and learned to crochet with my right hand ... but I worked the thread instead of the needle... I cannot supinate and have little to no biceps moving ... and both arms are now affected ... because of secondary conditions... I just finished PT again... I had all home treatment like you except for the first year I was also in a brace 24/7 and it was taken off only for massage and therapy... I had no movement until a little over a year ... and my hand is weak....sounds similar...

Yes, the entire side of my body is affected including my eye its called (Horner's Syndrome) one smaller eye and crooked smile because part of my face is affected and has a partial paralysis ... I have always had problems with my lungs and diaphram and assume it wasimpacted as well as our legs...my foot, hand, arm and rib cage are smaller and they just discovered my right ear canal is not asymmetrical... I just had an MRI the ENT would not accept my is birth related... I had a complete MRI for brachial plexus in June at Beth Israel Hospital in NY because I needed to know the full extent of the original injury as well as advice on how to prevent future injury ... you know how the arms bang in to walls..., etc., or people....

It amazed me to discover how much of my so called other ailments were truly related to OBPI. I some how never connected it all... I guess I was just to busy and assumed that if it was connected the doctor would have told me. I did not realize that little to no research has been carried out on the full impact of this injury...

Nice to meet you
Kath