United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Okay his 3rd appt is today at 9:30. I am armed with muscle diagrams and Kate's duh moment from the "geek speak", lol. Going to have his therapist try something that looks promising. Will let you all know how it goes after. He has also agreed that he sees how it is helping so we should have one at home. Yeah!!!!
Sue

Yeah! Sue I hope you find something new today.

Kath robpi/adult

Well, we knew he could fire the bicept from 90 degree and up. Last appt we had him firing it from full straight. Today we used Kate's idea and walked the arm through the whole motion from straight down to all the way bent up. He lost the muscle contraction as soon as it started bending past about 10 degrees and found it again at 90. We worked on this with him holding the contraction through the whole movement, it took a few tries but he finally did get it. He could stay conected all the way up and slowly back down again. I think this is one we need to focus on for a bit to make the conection more natural especially through the bottom range. The therapist was bit surprised that he could fire it and bend up when out of gravity (laying on his side). He used some pressure here to make the contractions stronger.
Also we did have the therapist order a unit for at home. Hope it is there next tues so we can learn how to use that one. They are at a conference thurs and fri so this will be his only appt this week.
Sue
Sue

Sue,

Wow, what an interesting session. I"m so glad to hear he's making progress! That's so interesting about his biceps muscle and how it works and how it doesn't. Can you believe you've been working on it all this time without this "inside" knowledge of what is really happening?!

You know, Kath has found - and this is true with Joshua, too - that the muscles seem to work *better* with resistance applied. Not just that a stronger contraction is achieved (easier to see on the machine), but actually more active range can be achieved as well. It is so counterintuitive that making something *harder* - by adding resistance - can make it work better. I think it must be that pushing against resistance itself provides some biofeedback to the brain to help the connection. Joshua, for instance, still cannot raise his arm above 90 degrees "normally", but if I give him my hand to "push" against he can actually push my hand all the way up?!

Wild stuff...

Kate

Thanks for sharing Sue.
At least now I know my arm is not crazy.
I could not believe it, at first, that all I had to do was put pressure and the nerve would fire.
I was told and thought they were paralyzed all these years.
It's like sending and e-mail to our brains.
I can't wait to hear more.

Kath robpi/adult

Sue, Dustins progress sounds amazing!!! I cant wait to hear more, Go Dustin!!! Pave the way for the tbpi's!
Keep it up Dustin!
Hugs,
Amy 20 years old ROBPI from MN