United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Has anbody had any success with being able to run and bike with a brachial plexus injury? I have ordered two new slings to allow me more physical activity and to allow my arm to hang. Does anybody have circulation problems when their arm hangs? Thanks

Hey -

I expect you'll got lots of posts from many active people... I'm having a brain fart remembering the name of the guy who's been the most inspirational but somebody here will provide it. He lives in Mexico & designed a wonderful sling using neoprene (sp?), the stuff scuba suits are made of - since it's strong but also flexible. My teenage son John has bought one & loves it for snow skiing. This guy has a bpi but enjoys snowboarding, mountain biking, scuba diving, water skiing, etc etc.

John enjoys cycling but does it with his injured arm in a sling that velcros to his waist so it doesn't swing out if he falls. He moved all his gears & brakes to the one side of his bike.

I read of a bpi guy who ran a half marathon without a sling but admitted that he was pretty tired by the end & had to "feed" his arm a beer to help it feel better.

Christopher Janney is also quite active & might add a suggestion or two. In the meantime, I'll try to remember that guy's name!

Take care,

Ellen

OK, I did a search on 'sling' with this site & below was the first one to pop up. It includes an email from Fernando Jaimes & info on the sling:

http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread ... 124#129124

Hope that helps.

Ellen

I do both, often.

When running, if it's anything over 2mls continuous I'll have to grand my wrist and kinda support my arm for a minute or two. This takes the pressure off my shoulder and left side ribs, kinda gives the area a breather. Though, when I was 1/2 marathon training, the endurance on the left also increased to handle the distance, it just took some time. I do notice that my arm gets a little more red, especially on the cooler runs. I make sure to move and bend the elbow more often so to circulate the blood.

For biking, I use a wrist strap to keep my arm more manageable (I do not strap my wrist to the bike). I do have a little control in my shoulder and that is helpful. When I do get tired on the bike, I'll situp and rest my arm in my lap for a breather, then lean forward again when I'm ready.

When I ride my motorcycle, I wear a velcroed glove that sticks to velcro on the grip. Unfortunately, when my arm gets tired, it drops a little. To remedy this, I'm rethinking a varied method, using both the velcro and a flat metal hook. Again, I don't tightly attach myself to the bar in case of a get-off. I need to make sure I can unattach mmyself so if the bike goes one way and I go another my arm is not caught in the middle.

Hi Ellen, Just send you a email to say hi with some pictures from our ski trip from this year.

Hi Fredrick, I think trying to keep active is a good medicine for us and it could be in anything that you like, for physical activities I belive that a sling that can hold your arm wile doing it could make the difference. I will be more that happy to try to help on anything that I can.

Saludos
Fernando

Thank you all for sharing your accomplishments. And thank you for referring me to Fernando. I want very much to begin a workout regime, but for some reason the burning desire is not there, yet. Depression does play a big factor. By the way I am 19 months post injury. Have either of you experienced the listless feeling towards physical activity? From working-out I " I do experience much pain, especially in the shoulder area. Do either have shoulder sublaxation, two finger seperation? I do feel some motivation motivation starting to brew. Thank you

Hi there. I have my arm that needs a sling due to sublaxtion (as per the thread mentioned before). I try to exercise as much as I can which isn't much as pre accident. I can walk for about 1/2 - (1?) hr max before I get too tired due to the pressure on my shoulder. I motorcycle a bit as sitting in that position actually puts my shoulder in the most comfortable position it feels. I don't ride 'that much' due to not wanting some idiot to run into me while I am still in recovery mode from my August 2006 surgery.

My arm seems to be doing "something" as I am getting more pain of recent and it seems to be deeper and broader than usual so we hope it's an indication that some stuff is starting to wake up in my shoulder (fingers crossed!). I put a new exhaust on my bike yesterday all by myself. I took my time and was very pleased I was able to do something like this without help. If you care to see the end result (before I put the seat and back tail back on) take a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWvvKY0sZGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxIFFSQ2wyY

It's so pleasing when I manage to do something "normal" and gives my morale a big boost I started to get motivation to do things a few weeks ago when the recent new pain started happening so I have put myself down for vocational panel work (people who help look for work for me and do workplace changes to suit my injury) as I am currently on medical benefits since my surgery in August. I hope to get back to 'normal life' soon, be it that I have or have not healed from my surgery. Finally coming to terms with my arm 'needing help/protection' due to the TBPI and feeling I can take on the world once again.

Best of luck with you finding that burning desire again, it certainly goes a long way to leading a 'full' life again (Best words I can think of to describe it, I just woke up not too long ago and still half asleep so excuse my poor wording )

Thinking of you and everyone else in here as usual,

Warren

Hi Fredrick,

As far as being able to run, bike or any other activity, that will be determined by your desire to do it. If you have looked around on this site, you know people can and have done just about anything sports wise.

What you do with your arm when being active is based on your own arm and what sport you are doing. For me, I was injured 20 yrs ago and avulsed all 5 nerves. I was golfing within a month, snowskiing within six months, waterskiing within a year and since then done a handful of short triathlons, road with a racing bicycle club, played basketball, baseball, tennis, bowling, football, rollerbladed, volleyball and a handful of others.

In my experience, any of the sports that bounce or had sudden movements, I wrapped my arm up very tight to my body using a standard sling to hold it up and a kidney belt to hold it in. After seeing the sling Fernando built, I contacted him and had one made for me, I really like it for two reasons, first it is one piece, second, the weight of the arm transfers to your good shoulder, instead of the sling strap around your neck.

If you need help figuring out how to a specific activity, please do not hesitate to contact me, either on the boards or at my e-mail.

Good luck,
Dan

Ellen

The guy you are thinking of is Paulo from spain. He hasnt posted here in a while but he opos up on http://www.tbpiukgroup.homestead.com/index_1.html

he has a website with some of his sling creations etc. i'll post the address if I can find it

different guy i guess but i Paulo made similiar stuff very inspirational too