United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everyone I just wanted to make a post to introduce myself. My name Is antonino (friends call me Nino, you can too if you like) I'm 30 y/o and live in central WI. I suffered dystocia at birth , I was almost 12 lbs! Poor mom. Anyhow my bpi is left arm I have full grip strength and dexterity of the hand, but very limited external rotation of the shoulder joint as well as paralysis of the serratus anterior. I was born to a very blue collar country family that owned a dairy farm and spent my childhood milking cows and doing most of the stuff you could imagine us cheeseheads do . My mother never really told me what was wrong with my arm, I just knew something happened when i was born and that I was different. I praise god every day for her and my family because they never gave me an inch , I was always pushed as hard as my brothers and cousins (we were together basically everyday). As a child and a teen other than limited mobilty it would be rather hard to tell something was wrong with my shoulder, i worked out played football, baseball,basketball, and did some track and field in middle school. But every once in a while someone would watch me pick something up with my left arm and go , omg whats wrong with your arm ( severe scapular winging).I dreaded it, and always tried to hide it. During presidential fitness week i was not required to climb the rope or do pullups after my first year when i failed miserably on the rope climb (tears were shed). Anyhow as i grew up and went to college my level of activity was greatly diminished, my bpi arm basically shrunk down to nothing, at night when i would lay down to sleep my bpi arm would start to twitch, not like a little bit, ALOT I was scared so i went to the doctor. Immediately he knew that i had suffered a bpi and refered me to a specialist. It was then at age 25 for the first time I found out what was really wrong with my shoulder, dystocia at birth. She also diagnosed me with brachial plexus paulsy and recommended I get back into exercising regularly. She told me I was one of the lucky ones because i had full grip strngth and hand dexterity. To speak the truth I was heartbroken because at that point I knew that I would never be normal, but I accepted it. I knew I had to move forward though because by this time I had 2 beautiful young boys and I wanted them to see me as a strong father, I started with calisthetic workouts like pushups , assisted pullups, situps, running that sort of thing. All the stuff I had done in high school to stay in shape. Within 6mths the shaking stopped and life was good again .I even started to grow some muscle on the arm . Fast forward to november of 2015 I went from 190 lbs to 250lbs and gained around 4 inches on my bpi arm over the course. But now i had a new issue, during all my workouts my strong arm always made up for the lack of strength in my bpi arm, resulting in a massively over developed right arm 17" on my right bicep and 12 inches on my left. I really wanted to even things out so I started researching bodybuilding techniques to correct imbalance. My wifes friend Heidi worked out at a gym called pulse , and she told me they were amazing people so I decided to join. This was the 4th greatest thing that has ever happened to me(children and wife are 1.2.3 ). When i first started everything was so hard , but over the past 10 mths the most drastic changes have happened in my body its hard to explain just how much strength I've gained. Now I live for the moment when i can get in the gym and lift some weights, because literally month by month I'm making more and more progress. Left bicep is now 16" right arm 17", and while my serratus will always be paralized, external rotation limited , somehow it's ok now, I feel better than I ever have and now instead of hiding I tell people when they ask me about why I only curl with one arm, or only do side lateral raises with one arm or why my shoulder blade is poking their eye out. Thank you for this site. Sorry to be so long winded on my first post but to be completely honest I've been completely alone on this journey and I've been waiting to tell this story my entire life. I've always wanted to reach out to others with the same condition but somehow never found this platform. Be happy , be healthy , and be strong my friends, this is just the begining. Nino

Awesome story Antonio. Really inspirational. Have you thought about coming to Camp UBPN (https://www.facebook.com/ubpncamp2017/) you would be able to reach literally hundreds of people at camp from ages 2-75 and tell your story. If interested in finding out more you can contact Anise@ubpn.org or claudia@ubpn.org.

I wish you continued success!
rich
president ubpn