United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hey everyone!

I'm just curious for all the stories about spreading awareness that we all must have accomplished last week!

-Chris LOBPI/25

I spread UBPN's Information AND My Life's experiences information on FB all 7 days;I SENT EMAILS to all my Non-BPI addresses from ALL my email services address books and verbally to everyone I talked to last a;ll 7 days. I also spread that "new Mom-to-be" information about delivry positgion to all new Moms I could think of and on "Circle of Mothers" pages on Facebook.There was NO response to "Letter of Request" to our WA Gov. Gregroire....

I challenged Gayle, "Brandonsmom" to do 24 hrs of NOT using her dominate arm/Hand.

Carolyn J

I took Carolyn's Dare to "ONE" arm myself. I did it for six hours and I took away my dominant arm. IT was hard, hard, hard, could not do it any longer, my back and shoulders ached and I was exausted. That was a true challenge...I See from a different light my son's injury. I also change my facebook status to BPI awareness, every day at least once. I think my friends were getting annoyed.LOL. except for Kath and Carolyn...and my other facebook BPI friends !!!
GAYLE mom to Brandon ROBPI

I challenged over 60 people to take the one arm challenge and not one person replied to me! I did however send the prevention info and how these injuries occur vidoes to the ssame 60 people and I know at least one person watched the videos! She is now prepared to ask questions before getting pregnant!

Amy 22 years old ROBPI from MN

I changed my Facebook status every day with a new message on preventions and requesting they visit UBPN. I also changed my profile picture every day putting up photos of me as a child with my arm sticking out. I handed new magnets to family members with UBPN on it.

I spoke to the nurses and other patients at Cardiac Rehap about prevention. As a result I was invited to speak at the hospitals Auxiliary meeting. We shall see about that one....

I wear my silver ribbon on my right side all the time not just during Awareness.

I admit I have a tendency to spread the word all year long to anyone who will listen. I try never to miss an opportunity to spread Awareness about obpi and also possible ways of getting a TBPI.

This is a great topic, thanks Chris.

Kath robpi/adult

I too changed my FB status. I shared some images I made to help with catching peoples attention on FB, which worked well because we were passing images back and forth all week which was very nice.
I sent out some letters, to various medical places. One was to the ortho I went to that wanted to do surgery on my hand with no idea what was going on, and I had to tell him all about the no BP or needles in that arm. And to the Family planning group, and the disability service groups. Though you'd expect them to know more about the disability they don't.

I wonder how many war veterns get the erbs injury. ERBS is the worse getting it latter in life ,I think but I was born with erbs injury I think reaching out to the ones injuried latter in life is the best thing I can do to help.

Tom

I want to thank Traci for her Superhero images...

She even made a Superhero for me... a girl with red hair... That was great for people to see because she made both male and female superheros with one arm all the way up and the other like most of us...


Tom many Vets had this injury and the most famous is Sen. Bob Dole.

Kath robpi/adult

That is awesome, everyone! I wrote an educational email, and sent to everyone on my mailing list, plus all my facebook friends. You can only send to so many FB friends at once, so that took a LONG time to copy and paste, but I know some of my friends were really appreciative to learn about BPI.

I'm with you Kath, in that this is important enough to me that there's no sense in just trying to spread awareness during a single week... it's gotta be all yera long! I've also started moving forward with the steps I need to take to join the paralympic cycling team. I started riding with, and just joined a local team. That's been neat because they all ask why I am riding, and it's the perfect forum to tell them what BPI is. The number one reaction I get is surprise when I tell them I'm going for te paralympics, and then I explain the BPI, and they say they would have never guessed. Even if I don't make the team, I am getting word out, so it's going to be a positive no matter what the outcome.

-Chris 25/LOBPI