United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

It has been 15 years, almost to the day since I paralyzed my left arm. My wife took some pictures of me playing with my kids at the beach over the weekend. We were looking at the pictures, it dawned upon me that the skinny, boney, little arm looks more bizarre than having no arm at all, so we made the decision to chop it off, so i am now looking for recommendations on prosthetics that appear life-like and wanted some input from those who had their BPI arm removed. Also, I wanted some ideas where to chop it - ie just below the shoulder ?. I can wait to start surfing again, body surfing and diving head first into the water.

I have always been athletic and over the years I have grown tiresome of always havin to worry about the arm. I kept it on because in my profession. It is best to have the appearance of having 2 working arms. I figure a prosthetics will be better looking than this skinny thing dangling off my shoulder - I have grown tired of putting my life on hold, waiting to see if there is a cure etc.. I have adapted fine with the arm but have come to the realization that I can have more fun with out it.

Thanks
Rich

Rich congrats on coming to this decision!!

I have no advise but certainly commend you for it! I have not talked with anyone that regretted the decision!!

Best of luck and keep us posted!!

Courtney

Thanks Courtney -

If I had limited function and the injury was fresher, I wouldn't consider it but it has been 15 years and I can shrug my shoulder and twitch my bicep and that's it.. I still hope that a break through happens but I am getting concerned about the quality of live. I injured my arm when I was 22 and am 37 now - I need to get back in the water and have fun. I've been strapping the arm in my wetsuit when I get wet but it does cause discomfort and I hold back because I do not want to injure it. i have broken it in various spots about 8 times now - The last time I broke it in 2 separate areas..

-Rich

i was 21 when this happened to me, i am 37 now. have thought about chopping it off also, but i keep hearing of these guys thats regrowing nerves. it is a guy thats a freind of the family somewhere in indiana. they are regrowing whole spinal cords in rats. ill wait a few more years myself, but if i have to get a fusion done ill just wackeroff. well all the luck to you, jimmy

I'm considering the chop, I'm 27 years post tbpi and like you sick of the dangling skinny arm. The hanging weight mucks up your neck and shoulder after time too. I was advised to have the arm off years ago and I wish I had, but I felt more 'normal' with an arm at the time.

Where they amputate depends on your injury, because I had some spontaneous biceps recovery they told me they would do it just below the elbow. I know lots of people who have amputated, as Courtney says, they all agree it was the best thing they did. You just have to be in the mind frame to do it, at the right time for you. It's also a fact that virtually no amputees use a prosthesis for very long, except functional ones with tools attached. There are new bionic type arms available if you're rich, personally I've managed all these years without a right arm so don't think I need a new one. Sometimes I wonder what able bodied people o with all those arms!
Take care, let us know how you go.
Jen NZ

Hi Rich

How are you? I think the amputee will give us freedom but what worry's me is the phantom pain. I do have some pain but it comes on and off and seems to me that I can control it some how by having the arm there, I think but do not really know. Also I was thinking that with the few muscle we have on the shoulder and the little control of it, it will be easily expose to get injure if we go hard on it.

I just broke my arm wile water ski and now that it heal it seems to hearth a bite more now but I hope it will get back to normal, any way I hope we can get together you, Chris, Dan and I in the river down in Mexicaly in early October and try to figure out the world of BPI's plus have some fun.

Hope to see you soon
Fernando

I haven't been on this site for a couple of years.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise when I came across this post straight away, as I have just been discussing with my wife the possibilty of amputating my right arm.

I'm about to reach the big 40 early next year and
i've been carrying this arm around since I was 17.

I feel shackled to this arm and I am sick of the sight of it. I too believe I would have more freedom without it.

Does anyone who has amputated want to give us some pro's and cons?

regards

I appreciate the replies. Maybe, it has something to do with age. Being 37, I am figuring that I have a good another 10 to 15 years of playing hard in the surf and water and w/o the arm dangling, it would give me more freedom. I was 22 when I injured the arm and figured that I would take the wait and see approach to see what advancements are out there.

I got to play the insurance game to see if they consider the surgery to be elective or if they will cover it, so it may be a few months but plan to have there done and healed before next summer. I need to do more resaearch in the prosthetics.

PS Fernando - I got your emails, I will be replying to you shortly - been buried at work..

Hi to all you who are considering amputation. My arm was totally paralyzed in my accident. I didn't even have any real shoulder movement. So after 3 years, and no improvement whatsoever, I decided on amputation. Like you, I worried about the phantom pains being worse afterward. The pain from the weight of the arm hanging from my neck and back outweighed my fear of phantom pain.

I decided since there were no muscles or nerves to drive a prosthesis, There was no reason like you have, to have one hanging as an added weight. So I decided to have my arm completely removed. I didn't have any increase in phantom pain, but it wasn't any better either. The freedom is glorious! It has been 4 years and I have never been sorry! If you have any questions you can e-mail me at srogers@cox.net . God bless you as you make your decision.

I chopped mine off a year after the injury - that was 25 years ago and I've never regretted it. It gave me freedom and I still remember the relief of getting rid of the dead weight. It felt like moving on.

I went just above the elbow so I have something for a sleeve, but never used a prosthesis. The mechanical one as useless and I didn't care about the cosmetic thing.

The pain has always been separate from the physical arm so that didn't change.

Good luck.

Henry