United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I am a 24 yr old female born with bpi in left arm/shoulder/wrist. I lead a physically active life and try not to let my injury interfere too much. I have managed to thru hike the appalachian trail (a 2200 mile backpacking trail) and bicycle solo from alaska to california. last week i broke my right (good) wrist and am going a bit crazy. has anyone broken there "good"
arm before? I could use some advice. i always knew i was dependent on my right arm but i guess i didn't know quite how much. i am having difficulty with almost everything. even eating because my left elbow doesn't go down when i lift my arm to my mouth. any advice would be helpful.
I am trying to stay positive. maybe i will become one of the 1st ambidextrous bpi people by the end of this;)

Edina,
So sorry to hear that you broke your good arm. I cant imagine how difficult things must be for you right now. I would be pretty dependant on others if I ever broke my left arm. Is there any way that you can still use your right arm to eat? A cast for a broken wrist should not go high enuogh up the arm to prevent that.

Sorry I dont have any advice for you but I sure do hope that your wrist heals quickly!
Hugs,
Amy 19 ROBPI from MN

Hi Edina, sorry that you broke your good wrist. I am a 31 yr old female with bpi & ep in my right hand, and I have always been very active and taken my left arm for granted until last fall when I ended up in the emergency room with what they thought was a stroke or a seizure and i ended up have a neurological overload due to pain from overusage of the left arm. I just spent three months off work and 20 weeks in physical therapy. And I have to say that this loss of wonder women strength and ability in my good arm has really deflated me and is really frustrating.. So you have my sympathy lady:)

Edina

I really feel for you it is hard when we loose our only "good" arm.
I discovered too late that we should take better care of our unaffected arms.
I have really made a mess of my unaffected arm by over use and I guess abuse.
I thought I could do anything and I did everything I wanted to do with one hand...
Then one day my good arm did not heal back to normal and as I age I am told it's worn out!
We really should be aware that our unaffected arms are doing the work of two healthy arms and we will suffer the after effects of overuse.
Compensation takes a high toll on our bodies in general.

Take this bad experience and learn from it.
It is important to take care of our unaffected arms.
Our arm must serve us for our lifetime and will suffer from wear and tear.
It is important to take steps NOW not to OVERUSE your unaffected arm in the future.

Now... that being said...
WELCOME to the Message Boards.
I don't have any good advice for you at this time.
I lost the use of my unaffected arm for over a week in my twenties and did not learn from that experience.
But I was young and still had my mother to help then...
Wish I could help you more.

Kath (robpi/66)

First I want to say try to keep your chin up and take it easy as much as possible. I'm sorry I can't fully relate but I remember how hard it was for me a couple years ago when I broke my BPI arm. I thought, oh good at least it wasn't my good arm, but it turned out I actually used my BPI arm quite a bit. So even that was an adjustment. My husband was a big help, and I had to take time off of work due to my injury. Once I went back I had to learn to constantly ask for help. It's better to take a little time to heal right than to push yourself and have it take longer to heal. How long will you have your cast on?

It definitely makes you slow down, currently my good hand has been going numb off and on, and my fingers have been numb for over 3 weeks straight. My issue is due to my pregnancy, but wow it has been an eye opener. When I wake up in the morning my hand is so swollen that it hurts to put any pressure on it. I have trouble picking things up and typing is only a short term thing, then I lose feeling completely and I spend more time fixing my errors than typing them. And on that note I must go.

But please, Take care and I'll be thinking of you. Maybe as you find things you are having real trouble doing you could visit with us and ask for help. I think there are enough people here we could invent a new way for you to do things till you heal.

-Traci

Hi Edina
I'm not birth injured, I lost all use of my right arm after a tbpi in 1980 when I was 21. About 6 weeks ago I broke my scaphoid bone of the only usable arm(in wrist) and had to go into plaster. I had to be fed (it wasn't the length of the plaster but the angle the wrist was set at that stopped me eating-my kids enjoyed feeding me!) and dressed and as for going to the toilet....well I just couldn't handle the help so devised interesting methods of helping myself involving the barbecue tongs......to be honest it was a total nightmare!
After a couple of weeks I persuaded them to put me in a solid custom made splint which was removable-in my case because I had no arms to use at all the lack of mobility was actually dangerous. Plus I wanted a shower. The ortho staff had never seen someone with one paralysed arm break the other one and had to devise different treatment strategies-total immobilisation of the broken arm wasn't an option for me, I had to have some use of the hand. They designed the splint so almost my whole hand was exposed which made things much easier. The bone I broke was tiny so I guess that made things easier.

I'm back to normal now with full use of the arm. It really gave me a fright and now I have to think hard about things I take for granted-I ride horses and rock climb, now I wonder if that is a good idea-if I broke the good arm higher up I think I would need to be hospitalised for the duration of the healing, or have 24 hour care provided. The good news is that my only arm apparently has really thick strong bone density, probably through being the only one used for 26 years. It also healed exceptionally fast, especially for someone my age. I think the fact that I had to adapt from right hand dominant to using only the left all those years ago made it easier for me to find ways round having no arms, but there really is only so much you can do. I do not intend to repeat the experience if I can help it......that was the first time I've actually felt disabled in my life. I have total respect for double amputees now-how on earth do they do it?

Good luck with your wrist and I hope you get it fixed as soon as possible :0)

Thanks Everyone for the support.
After reading your messages I realize I could be a lot worse off. I received a real cast today. It is red and very pretty. The swelling has gone down and I can use my fingers again. though my thumb is encased in the cast. This could probably be really good for me if I make it work. If I can get competent with my left hand I will probably reduce my overuse injuries. Yes, even at 24 I have them. tendonitis in my elbow since I was 13 and occasional arthritis in my hand during real big storms to name a couple.

Of course, I did have to break it 2 days before my work field season started. I work in streams doing fish habitat surveys. It seems to me they should of come up with affordable waterproof casts by now. Ill have it off in a month though, in time for snorkel surveys so it could definitely be worse.

Anyway, thanks for letting me complain.
Edina

Sounds like an interesting thing you're doing there with the fish Edina, I'd love to do that.
Waterproof casts are around NZ$60 here, I thought I would need one until they came up with the splint. Are they that much more in the USA?
Jenb NZ

Jenny
I am soooo sorry to hear about your arm...

I think this is a major fear for all bpi people.

I know I am always nagging about protecting the unaffected arm but now I have to add something...

The hand on our unaffected arms seems to be really wearing out...

When I lost my good arm for a week, I was so young, I did not realize that I had to protect my arm afterwards. It healed and I went on with my life and refusing to let anyone help me... I hated the thought that anyone would think I was disabled...

Now people know better than to offer help... so I have to ask... LOL...

take care and heal well
Kath (robpi/adult)

Hello and welcome to the message board.
I can totally relate to your problem and I'm sorry to say I don't have words of wisdom for you. I broke my right arm a few years back, which is my good arm. If it were not for my dau and grand dau who were living with me at the time, I'm not sure how I would have managed. To say it in plain english, I couln't even wipe my **** after using the bathroom, couldn't get in and out of the shower much less wash myself. It was a terrible time. If there was any luck to it, it happened in the summer, so my granddau stayed with me during the day while my dau worked. You get the picture. If nothing else, I had an old sling I used for my arm and just stood in the shower letting the water run over me. Of course I couldn't dry myself off either.

Had it not been for my family, my dau, not my boys (not sure where they got their modesty from) I really don't know what I would have done. I couldn't even hook the dog up to go outside. As for finding something to eat and using a fork, spoon and knife, forget it. I ate a lot of sandwiches.

Having you good arm unusable has got to be the worst thing I can think of. I'm sorry you have to experience it, and no, it doesn't make you a better person for it, but it does make you appreciate your good side more than ever.
Sharon from MI 59y lobpi