United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

hello everyone. i had a dream a while back that i was in some type of pick up game where like back in grade school there was the leaders of the teams picking players from the pool of people who wanted to play and after watching everyone else getting picked the last two in the pool was myself with no right arm action and a person who seemed to have problems with both arms and it was taking a long time for the leader to pick and so i waved my left arm and yelled "i have one arm!" and then i woke up breathing hard so i never found out who was picked. it was more of a nightmare, really. anyway, i'm curious if any other members have had dreams in which their injury played a part. or maybe i'm going off the deep end.

It's weird but it's been over 2 years and I almost always dream of myself with 2 normal arms. I guess that's how my mind's eye has always seen itself and it's not ready to change . I wonder if in the years to come when I've adapted more I will start dreaming of myself with one working arm? I hope not.
I don't think you're going off the deep end. Nightmares suck no matter what they're about. They always seem to express whatever you're feeling the most anxious about or whatever was the deepest on your mind before you go to sleep. (this is why I can't watch AMC"s The Walkimg Dead)

I'm 4 decades into this. when i dream, i have no injury even if I remember I'm disabled while in the dream. the first few decades I would dream that I could move my fingers and arm again. I would become overjoyed in the dream and disappointed
when I realized it was a dream. now when I dream my injury is not the focus of the dream. in my dreams I do not feel disabled, just normal.

Bill

i am too early on in this injury to dream about it i guess. but i had a different type of tragedy that i dream about quite often to this very day. when i was 23 my mother passed away very suddenly. i am now 49. i still miss her at times. i often dream that she comes to my house and visits me. she tells me she is still with me and she is just hiding from me. then i realize she passed away and this is only a dream. i always look at that dream as a comfort. it used to make me upset and i would cry when i woke up but i have learned to enjoy "my time visiting mom." maybe it would be a good thing to just enjoy your time that you can use your arm again. try to turn it into something positive. i know how hard that sounds but it does work. it can give you a break about worrying about your injury. it does not have to be a nightmare.

YES!! all thru my life.
Carolyn J
LOBPI/72

my dreams are 50/50. some i have my arm some i don't. on the other hand my wife will wake up and say "i had a nightmare!" and i'll ask "was i in it and did both my arms work?" and she says "yes." and i say "sounds like a good dream to me." lol any dreams with two arms are good ones to me.
daniel

I constantly dream that my injured hand is normal. That I can move it and some wonderful miracle has occured. Its really weird cause when I do dream about the injured arm its almost as if I'm in a semi concious state, and I can almost feel my fingers, and hand moving. Then I wake up and try to move them, because it felt so real. Then I usually have a bad day. I think maybe sunconciously I still feel like I will go back to the way things were before. And latley its been very hard to accept things the way they are. Its almost been three years, and it still feels so fresh and new so hurtful, maybe that is because the pain just won't go away. I'm just getting very tired. Tired of the pain, tired of answering the same questions, of what's wrong, how are you feeling, are you o.k.. Tired of seeing the disapointed look on other poeple's faces when the answer is always the same. yes I still have pain, yes there is nothing they can do, no they can't fix it, no the nerves can't grow back they are ripped out of the spinal cord, no it won't get better, yes I am sure. Then I get the response well doctor's can be wrong, you never know. Then I get so sad that when I show the result of my three surgeries tendon muscle transfer, and 24 weeks combined 8 weeks after each surgery of painful physical therapy, to get a basic pinching motion in my hand people say thats it, that is all you will be able to do. Then I have to encourage them saying well its better than nothing. I still have hope... it will get better. So sorry for the depressing response, I know it could be worse. So thankful for all of the encouraging words I read, and so sad that at this point in my recovery I have no encouraging words to write.
sincerly,
Leah

leah please read my post a few posts down. your dream does not have to be a negative experience. like i said in my previous post, you can enjoy the time you have in your dream, even though you know it is a dream. it is better than letting the injury get you down.

Thank you Jmar! Just having a bad day. I really do appreciate the encouraging words. I always try to look at the positive side of everything since this all started. I was injured when I was 24 so Lord willing I will have to live with this for multiple decades. Bless you! Thanks for the perspective. I just needed to vent a little or a lot

leah i hope your day is better hang in there.