United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I'm new here. I haven't gotten a change to read your posts, but I will certainly be reading them. My brother suffered this injury almost 28 years ago.....lost the use of his right arm completely, he was 21. Saw a few doctors in Columbus Oh who really couldn't help him and really could diagnose him properly for a long time. He started using drugs heavily shortly before his accident. He fell asleep in a bar and was kicked out, he hitched a ride from someone and got into the back of their pickup truck as there was no room for him in the cab. He must have been riding too close to the edge and was thrown out landing on his right shoulder. The pickup truck driver called the squad for him and then left the scene. The heavy, heavy drug us continued. He put our entire family through hell falling around, be stoned constantly and even being so high that on the night our father suffered a fatal heart attack, he was too high to be awakened to come to the hospital to be with all of us. All of these things combined became too much to bear and eventually he turned to heroin, but finally got on methadone through the federal clinic program. do to the severe pain that he began to suffer, he found a doctor who prescribed methadone for the pain. He takes valium as well and drinks on top of all of that. He his hopelessly depressed and at this point he has alienated just about every family member but me.

But I sure will read what you have to say as you have had your injury for a very long time also and I know that you are talking first hand about it.

those are pics from my surgery done @ Mayo in Nov. Those tissue expanders were removed in March.

Was trying to see the pics but it doesn't seem to be working.
Sue

Kath

I have a huge disparity between my shoulder sizes, bony and muscular, and it bugs me (being single doesn't help)!

Would love to see photo, but neither link worked.

It seems the first one was possibly to a yahoo email account and the second one was a direction for your own computers hard drive and storage location of the image.

If you want, you can join a free image & video hosting site that will allow you to store the image online for free and show anyone you want to with a link to the image itself.

http://photobucket.com/ is fairly easy to sign up and create an account.

If you've got any questions or difficulty doing it, just let me know and I'll give you detailed and easy instructions on how to post an image there.

example:
image of Paul T with one armed paddle for kayaking
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p80/ ... nwater.jpg


or video of helicopter doing a water drop on fire by my house in Hollywood
http://vid125.photobucket.com/player.sw ... 07_011.flv

sorry that I can't figure out the picture thing.
I'll try again.......
Kath

I took your advice, Christopher. Here is my link to see my photos. They are tissue expanders to stretch my skin to insert the implant that was made for me @ Mayo Clinic. I will send new photos of me w/ the implant in! It takes 6 months to settle but it will give you an idea.
http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x136/jkajaj/

The link works!! Ouch! Hope it wasn't painful. Glad they were able to help with the shoulder.
Sue

Online people come and go. Some can't always spend as much time as they would like on a message board. I don't feel it is personal. Just real life taking over.

Like others have said with this injury we all go through so many different things. Any support offered is a good thing. Just because they don't respond does not mean they have not heard you.

For me, I need a break real often. I found myself thinking about my injury 24/7. It was overwhelming. Since I can't take a break from my arm I take a break from here. Sometimes we just need to laugh, joke and forget.

Hope all is well with you!

Joy

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I think you are right, Joy, we do need to take a break. I let this injury get the best of me and I unloaded. People tell me all the time that I handled this injury so well. I was young when it happened so I ran away from it and just pretended it was there. I feel now, as I get older and the pain increases, that I get more down.
But summer is almost here and that means warm weather and kids running around the house. I'm feeling better.
Thank you very much
Kath