United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I'm a mother of a nineteen year old son with a left brachial plexus injury because of a snowmobile accident on 3-7-07. He hit a power pole. Jonathan had reconstructive surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, last summer 6-14-07 and is now headed to college at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN on 8-24-08. My question is for anyone that has a similiar injury and has done water therapy for their physical rehabilitation, and also if anyone has used a software program called Dragon to help with typing college papers??? Thanks for the input!!

Brenda Lee Jude

Hi Brenda Lee,

I avulsed all five nerves a couple weeks before I graduated from High School, I started college in the fall of the same year, that was back in 1986. At the time we thought the best Dr was in Toronto Canada and I was going to school in San Diego. A month after I started school, I flew to Toronto on a Friday, had an exploratory surgery on Saturday, reconstructive surgery on Tuesday, got out of hospital on Friday, flew home and was back in school Monday. Reason I did that was to make sure I didn't miss too many classes and have to take them over.

I mention that to let you know if your son is determined enough to get to school and finish, he can do just about anything. I lived in the dorms by myself, had a full schedule of classes and did my therapy too. I quit going to the occupational therapist when they started asking me to teach them how I was doing some of the things I was doing with one hand. Water therapy is great, less resistance and less weight on the arm so usually more comfortable. Been over twenty year since I have done therapy, but that is what I remember.

The other reason I mention this is to comment on the typing program. I have always had the idea that I wanted to use standard equipment for "daily living". The reason I did that was because the more special equipment I needed or used, the more I would become dependent on my equipment and if I then was put in a situation that I didn't have my special stuff, but needed to do a task, I wouldn't know how or it would take a very long time. This is true of typing for me, I learned very quickly how to type efficiently when I needed to turn in a ten pager the next day and had not started. By the time I graduated, I could type faster than a lot of my fellow classmates.

How that applies today is if my office computer has a problem and I need to go to another computer to work, I can make the transition without slowing me down or me becoming less productive.

The only things I use that are custom or special are for sporting activities, slings for high impact sports, harness for water skiing, or adjustments to road bike. Usually for these activities, you have to plan ahead to do them and the custom items are left with the other sporting equipment.

Looking back on it, for me, college was a great place to learn how to do life with one arm, I was learning how to be on my own, so why not toss in the arm at the same time? Like I said earlier, if your son is determined to finish and graduate, he will learn how to adapt to one arm and will do great!

My two cents!,
Dan

Brenda Lee,
I've got Dragon Naturally 9 speaking on PC. I use it only when writing long papers. I don't like hearing myself speak as I try and write my thoughts down (or type).

I fully agree with what Dan was saying about adapting as much as possible without assistance, but I'm also a bit of an efficiency freak. No matter how fast I can type now with one hand, it will never be as fast or as fluid as using two, and that irritates the hell out of me sometimes. Like now... I'm constantly going back and deleting key strokes that have hit the wrong key because I'm trying to type as fast as I used to (speed of thought).

Anyway, I use both. I've learned to type faster than most with one hand, but like having the Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) when I don't feel like being frustrated by backspace/delete hold ups.

I just ran across an article about the latest version of DNS.

Video link to the NY Times review of DNS
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=6 ... c2ab306c8d

Here is a Time Magazine article about a reporter who lost his hand in Iraq that inspired me to give DNS try.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

Good Luck!
Christopher

Hey Brenda!

I have a TBPI and I'm heading off to college this year, too (although I've had my injury for 9 years so I've had some time to get used to it)

I did water therapy immediately after my accident and I loved it. My muscles were too weak to work against gravity, but the anti-gravity of water allowed me to do so much more with my arm. I still like working with it in the water.

I learned how to type without using any program or special keyboard, and I disagree that you can't type as fast someone with two hands. I can get up to 60 wpm when I get going. It really just took lots of practice and stubbornness on my part. (As a kid, I refused to be treated any differently than anybody else. Also, I took a typing class in high school which made me practice my one-handed typing every day for 9 weeks. It helped a lot.)

This website has some good advice and tips on one handed typing: http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/howto.html

However, since your son isn't used to typing one handed, I can see where a program like Dragon would be a good tool. I just don't have any experience with it, sorry.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Hi Brenda, my seventeen year old daughter also hit a power pole three years ago while sledding. She avulsed all nerves and had surgery at the Mayo Clinic she very fortunately got her bicep and some shoulder back. We were very fortunate she survived.
At first we got her the dragon program thinking it would help her at school and with keeping up with her classwork (she was right handed and now she is left) She found it easier to just learn to type with one hand and she has done very well so far. I used to think the more adaptive equipment I get the easier for her it will be to cope. Boy, was I wrong, that fancy little bread spreader sits in the drawer, the rocking knife never gets used, the button hook has long ago been lost. That expensive jar opener sits in the back of the cabinet and I think has been used once (by me) the only thing she has really used is her fancy cutting board and one handed can opener. As for the water therapy she is just now doing that, she goes twice a week for physical therapy and twice a week for massage therapy. Good luck and just realize that you are only a phone call away. I still find myself putting my hands behind my back whenever I see her using her teeth to help open something or using her toes to paint her nails.