United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I lost the use of my entire ARM
So I have a bad case of the finger curl
Anyone here use splints or anything to straighten them?

I was injured 26 years ago and I still have straight, flexible fingers. I avulsed all five of my nerves, so I have a complete loss of use as well.

In my efforts to keep my fingers straight, I "work" my fingers all the time, bending them back and forth pretty hard. I do it subconciously all the time now, just part of my daily living. Since I have no feeling and early on knew I wasn't going to get any use, I don't worry about "damaging" or breaking them. I know that might sound a little odd, but it is what it is. I benefit both in my daily living as well as my athletics by having straight fingers, so I don't really care how hard I manipulate them, I just want them straight and flexible.

Hope this helps,
Dan

Curled fingers
I had this condition all my life with birth erbs , No matter the strength I gain in squeezing a ball , holding on to a semi steering wheel or anything I did, never uncurled or straighten my figures or the ability to turn my hand over ether
I gave up a long time ago about how my arm looks hand or shoulder the best I ever could do is improve what little I could or adapt to assist my good arm to work or what I could find to do
I think the best thing is when my brain switches off the focus of my limitations and look and focus more on what you can learn to do in spite of the limitations your left with
Trying to stay positive is a life long quest Sometime I think that the despair and depression , can be as bad as the injuries them self Everyone does so Much by there trys , some small some big by post The positive is when you learn to remember what we all do in-spite of our limitations, Please remember this when you focus on the despair side of our limitation. It is a life long quest for - sure
I know easier said then done One thing for sure , we really do know ,what it fells like
Tom

I have and use Balls of different sizes and hard/softness and textures whichever feels good to the hand on any given day. some are larger to stretch out the fingers more. when I began this @ 6 yrs ago, I could not squeeze a ball , now I can "some".

Carolyn J
LOBPI/74 (no interventions of any kind)

My injury was 32 years ago and I had severe claw hand, no movement or sensation of the right hand. I am now about 4 weeks post-surgery of a wrist/finger fusion at the Mayo Clinic. The splint hopefully will come off this Monday. Drs. Shin and Bishop fused the wrist to eliminate the floppy wrist and fused the two bones in the arm just above the wrist to eliminate the palm up position. The thumb was also fused and tendons released in the other fingers to eliminate the claw hand. Originally there were pins in each finger but all were removed after 2 weeks except the thumb to allow additional healing of the fusion. I am hopeful that Monday's followup visit allows to remove the splint that goes up around the elbow for stabilization of the fusions. If nothing else, perhaps it can be shortened while healing continues. I should be able to use it as more of an assist and cosmetically looks a heck of a lot better.

It's been 4 months since I lost the use of my whole arm but, my hand hasn't curled up. I manipulate them constantly.