United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I'm interested in finding out about weather and how that affects brachial plexus pain. I live in the US in the midwest where the weather is very unpredictable. I think the different seasons has a negative effect on the pain. Winters are difficult (snow, sleet), early spring it's cold and rainy. Summers are great and I feel much better. Any thoughts? I feel like I'd do better in a dry warm climate but I'm not sure?? I'm always trying to figure out what contributes to the pain. Obviously you can't control the weather. Thank you for any input you can give me.

I have found the longer post injury the less the weather seems to bother me. I live in the Pittsburgh Pa area and for a while after the injury (1985)the weather change bothered me. I think it was more a barometric change that was the reason...I still have some problems but it is more now the athritic type pain in the "good" arm when I notice it.

Hello Sela,

Yes the weather does affect my BPI. When I lived in PA the cold was horrible. I live in Florida now. When we get a cold rain I have problems. I have to be careful inside with the AC. I keep a scarf that I throw over my shoulder to keep it warm. Lightening also affects me a great deal. When the lightening strikes are close, and living in Florida they are close a lot, I feel them in my shoulder, chest and arm.

I think we have all learned ways to adjust to the whims of the weather. I guess it is just finding the ones that work for you. Example, in the morning when I take my son to school I wear a hooded sweat shirt, even when it is hot out. I do that because it gives me a buffer from the AC in the car. I had a woman at the drive thru where we get breaksfast ask me one day why I wear the sweat shirt all the time. I had to laugh, I guess I had become known as the sweat shirt lady! LOL Much better than some of the other things I am known for!

I lived in the midwest (Missouri and Nebraska) I remember how unpredictable the weather was. Also the extremes. Good luck.
Joy

you are so right sela, the cold is a big issue for the pain. Cold affects healthy nerves (yu know how it hurts when you play in the snow) and affects damaged nerves even more severely. It's apparently that the number of functioning axons has been reduced so that conditions of cold that would not normally affect healthy nerves are liable to badly affect damaged nerves. The bpi arm is quick to cool and slow to warm, if mine gets cold i have a terrible job getting it warmed up again, and i have to be careful because of no sensory input not to burn it in my attempts to warm it up! i live in the South Island of New Zealand where the summers are warm and dry but the winters are very cold, i have to wear a thermal sock on my arm all the time (gloves don't work, i don't have enough flesh on the arm to keep them on) and outdoors i wear two and often zip the arm up inside my coat as well. i have pain of varying degrees all winter unless i stay indoors by the fire. i reckon the Mediterranean would be the best place to live for climate, plus you get siestas!

Hi, this is definitely an issue with bpi, since the accident my arm and hand feel cold if less than tropical temperatures pretty much.. my shoulder feels looser, so much less tight in the heat than the cold ,, i reckon Jenny's right, let's all go live in south Spain, hold bpi picnics at Ibiza beach yeeeeehhhaaaa!! :O)

I have been rbpi for 19 years, and the weather still has a great deal to do with amount of pain I have. I live in the very northern part of Maine where winters are cold, and Springs are wet. We just spent 10 days in Florida ( for the first time) and the first morning I woke up, I noticed an amazing difference. I had no pain at all, and even the skin hypersensitivity was greatly reduced. It was the most wonderful 10 days!!
But on the bad side, within 2 days of being home, the pain returned. Hopefully someday I can move south!

Any kind of weather change seems to show up in my arm. Hot, cold, weather fronts, you name it, it affects my arm. It hurts all the time anyway, so I guess I just don't notice it as much during weather changes. I often wonder how a person without this injury would handle the pain if they had to endure it for only ONE day. Not that I would wish this on anyone...but just as a comparison. And yet we live with it continually, and even manage to get other things done. Is it just that we have trained our minds to accept the fact that our pain will hitch a ride as long as we live?? Gets depressing sometimes. My last therapy visit is this Monday. I have decided that I've no use to go back. The excersizes I'll do at home. What is interesting though is that my therapist always asks what my pain level is...on a scale from 1 to 10. (sound familiar anyone????) Interesting to note that it hasn't changed in over two years. The same ole burning and crushing in the same ole spots. Really sucks. The meds are temporary and I've decide I'll do without them. (boy...was THAT fun...getting off of them after two and a half years....which is a whole nother subject) Didn't mean to get on a soap box.......life is still good.

Hi George;

Yes, the good ol' pain scale '1 - 10' has been in use since Pontius was taking flying lessons I reckon ( work THAT one out..! ;0) )but I have heard that therapists/physios whatever are now realising that this numerical method doesn't work...all it in fact does, is measure the scale of how the therapist feels pain, if you see what I mean.
Nowadays, they are beginning to use a more descriptive way of getting the patient to describe pain levels, by using words like 'burning' or 'crushing,' and this method I personally think is far better. Whenever they asked me about pain in the past, using the numerical scale, I always said 'eleven'; at least with the descriptive way, you can get closer to actually getting the real pain levels across to them, although I don't think some would be too happy with MY choice of words sometimes!

Liz B

P.S; It wasn't too funny either when I gave up the meds after 8 years...but it was worth it; I feel so much better, and more 'on to it' if you know what I mean; giving 'em up was one of the best things I ever did regarding this injury; it was well worth all the 'cold turkey....'

Howdy Lizzy.....I agree wholeheartedly with you re the pain scale. To me it's almost not worth asking about......ESPECIALLY with a nerve injury. My pain scale would be between 0 to 1. Either you have it or you don't. And I don't think anyone would fall into the zero range. Like you said...it is better information to get location and type of pain. Good to know it is changing. I've got a whole arsenal of adjectives to describe what I go through every day.....EVERY day. How about it all you long termers--did you notice any decreases in pain between 2 1/2 years and where you are today? Or do you think you have the same amount of pain and have just adjusted to it? I really don't know how I would answer that question.

Eight years, Liz ????? cold turkey ????? Can you say "basket case". It was hard for two solid weeks to adjust to no meds in the system. EVERYTHING was screwed up. It was scary...kind of like I had nothing to look forward to. I think the early signs of depression were enough to shake me out of my haze. Probably should have eased my way out, but like you, went cold turkey too. It was not a pleasant experience. Both physical and mental. I'm not trying to scare anyone, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it either. It was HARD !!! Hope I never have to touch it again.

Nuff said......George

i went cold turkey too, but i did it within 6 months post injury, made it easier. Can't remember wot i was on, but i remember i took 18 of em a day...I'd gone back to work and found pain meds made me too fuzzy, plus i was 21 and had a good social life, pain meds don't usually mix too well with beer i was convinced i wouldn't be able to survive the pain without the pills but after a while i didn't notice the difference. Most peeps seem to do fine without the meds, they are certainly no worse off than when on em, pain's a funny thing.

Good question about the long term pain George, i sometimes wonder if the pain is as bad as it was but i've learned to deal with it like you say. It could be the 'pain gate' theory, the idea that occupying the brain in some activity stops the pain signals getting through, i certainly don't think about my arm any more unless one of the kids stands on it or something :0) the pain clinic at Stanmore has also found that regular daily exercise helps long term pain sufferers, endorphin production maybe? But like many tbpi i still have sudden 'attacks' that just stop me in my tracks. Funny thing is, after being virtually pain free for 18 odd years, i found this message board and found that i definitely had more acute episodes after that....especially in chat or when a newby is describing the pain, mine sparks up in sympathy, which seems to show that in the same way that not thinking about it stops the pain, thinking about bpi in general and mine in particular starts it up....in fact, while writing this, my bpi hand has started the old crushing achy feeling uh oh! Did u read the post from the 70 yr old obpi on the other board (under spastic diplegia post-check it out, she has a GREAT attitude)... she has never known what was wrong with her and clearly never thought about her arm, seems to have had a trouble free life....maybe we should all go away and forget all about bpi!