United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

i am totally with you on this one. my injured arm is also my right and when i am sitting and someone wants to shake my hand i have to get up so i can reach and they always say something like oh you don't have to get up and i'm like but i do! lol

during flag ceremonies at school and that is evryday! we need to raise our right hand andmy affected arm is my right hand. it is always embarrasing especially when other students look at you with confusions in their faces.

I have another to add... i went to a concert yesterday, and upon entering the building they pat everyone down... they were like "arms up" so i did the best i could... she looked at me and repeated "arms up" i was just like "i cant!" lol, she looked at me funny, did what she needed to do and let me go...

~Mel, 21, LOBPI

Another embarrassing moment that I haven't mentioned before:

The man who was taking the prom pictures said, "Put your arm (he didn't specify which one) straight down."

I said, "Both my arms are as straight as they go."

These two sentences were repeated three times before he finally took the picture. Meanwhile many of the other prom attendees who wanted their pictures taken were standing within hearing range.

Besides gym class, and teachers who didn't want to understand, this was probably my most embarrassing incident up to that point in my life.

Joanie

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school.. and anytime the National Anthem is sung. I've never been able to hold my hand across my heart. To this day, my left hand pushes my right hand onto my chest. But I just remember what my mom always told me: "No one notices!"

-Staci
ROBPI

Definitely, buffets are awful, especially wide ones. I can never reach the food in the back, I have to have my husband do it for me.

I would have to say, my most embarrassing was when I was in my high school gym class and were doing swimming exercises. Well, I never learned how to swim because my arms get tired really fast. So, when my teacher was trying to help me out and teach me she kept yelling at me to straighten my arm. When I told her I could not I had to explain to her my condition, in front of the ENTIRE CLASS! Let's just say from that day on, I was given several nicknames. Kids can be so evil at times!

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories here! Some made me giggle, others made me want to cry.... because I'd been there too!

Mine isn't embarrassing, it's more like traumatic. In school, when the nurse would check us for scoliosis, I was always singled out! She'd say "Now girls, come look at this! Lisa doesn't have scoliosis, her left arm is crippled, but this is what it looks like." (Like 12 year old girls don't have enough ammo to use in picking on each other!) Little did I know then that it wasn't just what scoliosis LOOKED like, it WAS scoliosis! Just not the correctable kind!

Also, everytime someone who knows me but never noticed my arm was different says "Did you hurt your arm? You're holding it funny," I used to feel embarrassed about it, but now I just say "Nope. The doctor that delivered me hurt it." Then they're even more curious and I get an opportunity educate people!

P.S. Gym class was a nightmare! I didn't have to do weightbearing exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, rope climbing, etc) or gymnastics, but sitting out while everyone else had to do these hated activities made me the target of some really mean comments from other kids.

You know those odd poses they make you do for your HS Senior picture...chin up, resting on your fist...the person kept trying to get me to do this, he would come over and move my arm to the right spot, and when he walked away, of course it would fall down...Even after I told him I could not do that, he kept trying. haha.

He finally just took the picture with both arms down.