United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

my sons arm is now so painfull in the winter from the cold...has anyone made a arm sleeve that will hold thoses hand warmers...i want to start making them ...but i need everyones help...does anyone else have this problem
yvonne
patrics mothers hes 24 and had a motorcycle accident in 2009 and had surjery in jan 2010

Brachial Plexus Patric's story on facebook


Im Yvonne ,Patric's mother with a brachial plexus injury.
Let me tell you about my son Patric. He is 23 years old male that sustained his injury in a motorcycle accident in july 2009 ...

He had surgery that day to repair the inside elbow of his right arm...

... It took about 4 days befor he had movement in some of his fingers...
Patric then went thought a battery of test to see what the problem was ...
Thats when we found out he needed to go to see some specialist in the mayo clinic in rochester minnesota..We were told there was no one in boston that could do that kind of work...

So being a mother i started looking into it asap...
We traveled to mayo clinic in minnesota in nov 2009 ..
The DR.s told us he need surgery and it was time sensative ...
It needed to be preformed befor 6 month of the accident has passed...
Patric and i went back to mayo clinic in jan 2010 to have this operation...
they told us when it was all done go home and heal ...
They told us the nerver will regrow 1 inch per month down his arm ...so it would take about 2 1/2 years befor we will se any results....

patric has started to get a twitch in the tip of his thumb 10 months out of surgery and has started to pull his arm into his body at his shoulder ....

now its march 14 monts out.....and nothing new is happening

Pat,
My son is 17 with a TBPI also, we ended up making an “arm mitten” out of wool felt and added pockets just large enough to hold the hand warmers. Worked like a champ. Just remember that the arm mitten becomes bulky. Your son also needs to check the arm to make sure it remains warm while outside. We traced his arm from bicep to tip of fingers and added a Velcro tab at the top of the arm to help keep it from sliding down. We placed the pockets at the top of the hand; outside of forearm and outside of bicep. Hope this helps.

suzanne

I drove semis for years and load and unload them in Chicago winters. My erbs arm and hand, birth injury,it is always red but changes to purple in winter cold. I did ware a glove and did put a hand warmer in my palm when I was out of the truck. I change the hand warmer to a heat packet you can find at a sporting goods store. I also had a pocket with a zipper made for my winter coat to hold the hand warmer and this pocket was done to the inside of the forearm of the coat. It keep my blood warm going to my hand it help me alot being in my trailer for hours loading or unloading basically one handed. I always ware a glove on the erbs hand in winter. Hope this helps
Tom

Check out the 'hot chili's" brand of thermal clothing. At a place like REI, EMS, Macy's maybe.
Point is they hug the body tight and you could sew a pocket or maybe elastic materials easily. If you can, the NFL has sporting equipment that will accomplish your goals.
Good Luck and Best.

i dont know how many of you wear a sling, but i recently bought a sling at CVS that had pockets already inside. it is just an ordinary sling. you could always take the straps off of it and velcro it together if you dont need the sling part of it.

My arm is cold a lot of the time as well, even in nice weather (which is mostly what we have here). I have always hated wearing long sleeves, and now it's even worse - the left one always seems to pull the neck of my shirt all cock-eyed. I had been thinking about cutting a left sleeve off of something and hemming the big end, but then I remembered that cycle shops sell those, and I'm lazy and don't sew all that well. So I bought a pair, the cheapest I could find were pearl izumi, $30 for a pair. So far they stay on pretty well and seem to help, and I think they'd be a good place to start if you wanted to sew pockets on something to hold hand warmers - or you could just stuff them in, they would probably stay in place if the sleeve was tight enough. Mine is pretty loose, I am tall and skinny anyway plus I've obviously lost whatever left arm muscle I had.