United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I was on the lake this past Saturday and got the usual amount of sun on meself, for this time of year. Woke up Sunday morning and WOW !!!! top of bpi hand is toasted......I mean......WELL DONE !! The other hand was normal....no burn. Any of you ever had this happen ?? Last year I was wearing a splint, so my hand never got any direct sunlight, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. No joke here peeps......watch the sun. No way this is normal.

hey goerge

im in FL here. I noticed my bpi arm cooks faster than the rest of me. i discovered it at a race where i thought it was going to be coold luckily i had a jacket so i kept my arm covered up once i realzed it was getting burnt rather quickly. So cover up or bring sunscreen spring is here.

John

yes George it's just another bpi hazard...mine takes about 3 minutes to burn red, about 5 to blister....seriously. Mind you, i live right under the hole in the ozone layer but it's headed your way.... i need sunblock (sunscreen is not enough) on the bpi arm any time of year when it's sunny :0(

This is exactly what I have been trying to tell the doctors. I cannot regulate the temperature in my arm. I cannot tell when it is too hot. In my good arm, I sweat (if I can say a lady sweats), but my BPI arm does not, so it burns easier because I can't sweat the heat out. I am sorry you got burned, but boy it makes me feel better that I am not alone. Use Aleo Vera.

Take care.

Kathy

George - for your sunburn - keep an aloe plant around - a real one! take off a leaf and take a knife - cut it open length wise and scrape off the jelly. Put the jelly right on your burn. It will end up burning like all heck for a very short time and then when the burn has stopped - it'll be mostly all better. It's a miracle worker. The real thing works much better than the processed stuff in the tubes.

hope your arm gets better soon...yikes...and thanks for the heads up

-francine

George-

We here in Michigan haven't been lucky enough to GET that much sun yet Being Obpi I don't seem to have that problem?? My advice is 1006 SPF next time you head to the lake !! Or an umbrella and a drink

I have problems with the sun too. I burned mine really bad that first summer! Another thing to be careful of is cold. My first winter I learned the hard way about that one.
My arm is stupid when it comes to regulating temps. It can be as cold as an ice cube but have sweat dripping literally off of it!

What about goosebumps? Is that a universal noun for the bumps you get when you are cold? I don't get them on my BPI arm except recently I noticed they showed up on the upper part of my bpi arm where they had not since my accident. Very strange.

hhmmmmm...I get goose bumps on part of the forearm only...my whole arm (apart from that bit) burns bright red in minutes like jen...I never noticed it until someone pointed it out; I have, over the years burnt my arm severely(not in the sun) several times, and it took a donkey's age to heal. The cold affects it too...although by the time I've noticed, ALL of me is shivering, also, the right side of my face doesn't sweat, but burns easily too.

..quick note to Francine et al; aloe vera works very well on sunburns on 'normal' skin; it takes the heat out and helps with the healing, and I for one would be over the moon if I could feel it stinging....it would mean something was still 'alive' in my arm...possibly....we get burnt in the first place because we can't feel it.

This is the table on the adults info sheet we prepared last year about levels of sensory function....this is the table used by doctors to evaluate recovery etc

TABLE TWO: SENSORY FUNCTION

S0 Absence of sensibility in the autonomous area

S1 Recovery of deep cutaneous pain sensibility within the autonomous area of the
nerve

S2 Return of some degree of superficial cutaneous pain and tactile sensibility within
the autonomous area of the nerve

S3 Return of superficial cutaneous pain and tactile sensibility throughout the
autonomous area, with disappearance of any previous over response

S3+ As S3; in addition some recovery of 2 point discrimination within the
autonomous area

S4 Complete recovery

Most of the tbpi I've met have been at level S0 so altho we do burn easily we can't feel it AT ALL...which is probably why we burn! we only know it's happened because we can see it.