United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

4 weeks later and we finally got the steristrips off of Blake's arm last night from his bicep lengthening(sticky little suckers!!) We'll work again on his caps strips tonight. He is such a wiggle worm, I don't want him to hurt himself. I felt so bad for him, he didn't realize what the doctors had to do to work on his rightie(he's 4) and I explained that they had to use a special tool to cut into his skin to work on his muscle to make rightie work better. this was his response..."I'm not a piece of meat!!" I asked him why he said this and he said "we cut meat so we can eat it" I told him that everybody has scars and showed him some of mine(I've got plenty) and after a few more tears, he and myself were just fine. I felt so terrible for him. Everytime something like this happens or we go for another surgery, I just cringe when I think of what the OB did to him and how Blake has to suffer just because my doctor was negligent.

What a heartbreaker. I think you handled the situation great. I am really concerned about my daughter's reactions to this surgery also. She is 4 and having the bicep length. next Monday. Being older and more aware than her last two surgeries, I think this one will be harder on her. I have been trying to prepare her, but at the same time not terrifying her. What kind of preparation did you give Blake before his surgery? Any help is appreciated.

My daughter was 4 when she had Mod-Quad, then 8 months later (still 4) had bicep lengthening. I showed Kelsey the splint for mod quad on injurednewborn.com and explained very little. When it came time for bicep lengthening, I explained that we were going back to the hospital for Dr. Nath to help her arm more. I explained that he was going to try to make her arm go straight by her side, and reminded her how much she liked having her meals in her bed at the hospital, the icecream, jello, tv all to herself, moving bed, etc. After the surgery (a breeze for us), she was bouncing on her bed in recovery trying to make her heart moniter spike up and down:) We are waiting for word on the caps surgery now, and I spoke to her a little bit about it, and so far she is ok. We know if she doesn't have caps, she will have the intercostal grafted or the c-7 transfer.

we showed Blake his modquad splint and he remembered and we explained that we were going to have his rightie operated on to try to make him work a little bit better and maybe be able to to turn his hands over to wash them. We got the book "going to the hospital" at Barnes & Noble and he liked it and took it to school with his splint and told his friends that he was going to ride on an airplane and have an operation. His friends have been accepting and now they have "broken legs" and want a splint like Blake. This scar issue has been the only problem and he has handled everything like a trooper. If he wants to do something he shouldn't or wear something that won't fit over his splint he just says "oh, yeah, I have my splint on" good luck and if you have any questions, you can email me.

Crystal S.