United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hey there, just discovered this site the other day and am happy to find it. I must admit that I've never thought much about connecting with others with a TBPI (never knew there was a name for it either ), but it warmed my heart & I actually shed a tear when I realized that there are many many others in the same boat as I am. Today is actually the "midpoint" of my life so far with this injury. My injury happened 1 week before my 20th Bday, and today is 2 weeks before my 40th. I always seem to get very introspective and mellow around this time of year when I realize my anniversary is near. I've never had any surgeries to try and repair the injury, and have never had any regrets either. I have the classic signs & symptoms of a right arm injury (no movement in shoulder or elbow, scattered feeling up & down my arm, dull pain in shoulder), but have found that it is really a very minor hindrance in my day to day life. It may sound funny, but physically this injury was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but emotionally and psychologically the best thing ever. It forced the whiny, depressed teenager I used to be into the person I am today. Anyways, if you've read this far I appreciate you taking the time to listen to my story. I look forward to reading other stories as I feel I can relate much more than an uninjured person. I am also curious to read how this injury has affected other's outlooks on life. Peace!

Scott

sfeather11 wrote: Today is actually the "midpoint" of my life so far with this injury. My injury happened 1 week before my 20th Bday, and today is 2 weeks before my 40th.

It may sound funny, but physically this injury was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but emotionally and psychologically the best thing ever. I am also curious to read how this injury has affected other's outlooks on life. Peace!

Scott

Hi Scott,

I thought I would put up a quick reply to your post, I know it is always nice to know people are reading what you post as well as taking a little time to reply.

I was 18 when I got hurt, I am now 43, but I do remember my "midpoint" when I had actually lived longer with my injury than without it. I usually remember after the fact that I passed a "milestone" date, just like this year I passed the 25 yr mark last month in May, I personally don't give it much thought. Which leads me to commenting on your other point and question.

My outlook on life I don't think changed much after my injury, it did change some of my athletic short term goals, but I can say looking at my life now, it looks pretty close to what I thought it would when I was younger. I am married, have two children and own my own financial planning business. I golf, water ski, snow ski, do triathlons and a few other things I enjoy, which are the same things my life long best friends do with me.

One of the things it has done is give me a larger platform to help influence and encourage others. I give talks mainly to high school kids about "Overcoming Life's Challenges" and having a paralyzed arm is a good attention grabber. I also know by doing some of the sports I do that I can be an encouragement to more people as well. One funny and true comment my Dad made years ago, is that I was an average good golfer ( I was going to play college golf) but now I am one of the best one armed golfers in the world, so because I my injury, I went from being good to being great

I Hope with all your years of experience with this injury, you can help encourage and offer some wisdom to the "newbies", I know they appreciate input from us oldtimers.

Dan

You GUYS are AWSOME!!!!!!! I thought , OTHER guys who like the evil -con- evil Life God was my CO_PILOT some times he drove the Semi when I was Dancing On the Ice My bilgiest joy is scuba diving at 60 ft below my pain goes away, I am weight-Less My bilgiest problems is wishing I never found These injuries with out Direction n- Yet in time to me things changed so many treatment and not knowing which way to go, You learn to do thing with Joy because you learning to be a PHENIX from trying to adapt to YOUR limitations, What a gift JOY will DEFEAT emotional train wreaks every Time!!!!!!!!!

I am retired at 61, Design and customized a 2005 GTO and do car shows on the ultimate gto sight to, Life's is good, Scuba dive and Fish, The act of God to me is What I could overcome and not what COULD not work out,TRYING IS THE MOST you can do, Like are post in ADapting to Post, Over 1,000 you have a book?? I would share the book with babies moms who babies get very bad birth TBPI injuries at birth , like I was. Just a thought IT is a BOOK - of CAN DOES : That Joy

The other Young Guy
Tom

In my 9th month with this injury and being in my late 30's it trips me out to hear you guys who have 20 years+ with this injury.It makes me wish i would have done some things alot sooner but taking care of my father who has suffered multiple strokes and ironically a paralyzed arm has been my focus for the past 6 years.Unfortunately when I thought things were becoming a little more stable and I could start focusing on me,the accident happens.No more job and any future plans put on hold,un*&^#$#@believable! What a time to be trying to rebuild my life at times it seems hopeless,don't know how I'm going to get through this one.I hope one day I can look back like you guys and say "I made it through and I can smile again" but with only 9 months I have a long way to go.God bless you all.

hey armstrong i'm about a month further out than you and i can relate to a lot of what you express. yeah, we are still in the process of emerging out of the shock phase of the accident. so anyway my advice would be to be kind to yourself. anyway all the talk about anniversaries and the time span got me thinking cause i celebrate my anniversary on a monthly basis now. but i guess that's cause the injury is new and i would imagine as time goes on it will become a yearly thing. welcome, scott, i look forward to reading your take on life. doug

i recently passed my one year anniversary. just to let you all who are right behind me know, as the one year mark approaches, getting used to the new way of doing things seems to get easier and easier. you start to "forget" how you used to do things. the pain becomes less and less, you will begin to just accept things how they are. (hopefully). i still have surgeries to have done, and i am hoping it will make it even easier for me to cope. good luck to all of us newbies.

Hey armstrong, my dad suffered a stroke from trauma from the accident and he isn't the same man at all anymore. I COMPLETELY understand what it's like to see your dad completely change almost overnight, and how draining it is (physically, AND emotionally) to care for someone you love whose in that condition. It's more painful than anything else from this accident.........as if a part of him DID die in the accident........ In a way I think it's one of the reasons I have coped personally so well with ALL of my injuries. I couldn't sit back and feel sorry for myself or be depressed when i had my dad and mom to worry about. If I didn't stay strong I think my mom would have cracked..........
So don't be so hard on yourself. Hindsight is ever perfect and it's so easy to look into the past and wish we would have done things differently, with OR without injury. Regret can also flow in many directions too. Sure you can look back and regret that you did not do more for yourself.........but would you really prefer the alternative ( of looking back and regretting that you didn't focuse on caring for your father when he needed you)? For what it's worth I think you did the right thing. Also, since you were in the process of rebuilding your life anyways, maybe think of it as you are simply continuing to rebuild, but the "architecture" has changed
take care,
ang