United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Paula, this was a great idea!

Welcome to all the new ones here and hello to the not so new ones! I am Tina, SAHM to Nicole, who is our beautiful 3-yr old daughter with a total LOBPI. Nicole is our only child so far. She has had 4 surgeries at TCH for her BPI and has PT, OT, and Aqua PT. She has also done TES (electrical stimulation at night), but we're on a break right now while she wears her post-op splint at night (just 2 more weeks!!). She enjoys singing, dancing, talking (and talking and talking LOL), answering questions at our congregation meetings, Kindermusik, and so much more. Her favorite things to watch on TV lately are Bear in the Big Blue House, Dora, The Wiggles, YogaKids, and Noah's Ark. Nicole works really hard to get her arm stronger. She has made amazing progress, yet I know we still have a lot of work ahead of us b/c she has a severe injury. Feel free to ask any questions either here or by email at rosesmom315@juno.com -Tina

My name is Stacy and I have a 4 year old daughter, Natalie, ROBPI. She had one avulsion, two ruptures and neuromas. She's had primary surgery, mod quad, capsuledesis and bicep lengthening all at TCH and is scheduled for pronator teres transfer and infraspinatus release on Monday, March 25, also at TCH. She's the youngest of three--Kailea is 11 and Zac is 9.5. She's the center of the universe and knows it. She loves music, dancing, gymnastics, Dora the Explorer and pretending. We are huge advocates of "alternative" medicine--chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal medicine... and have seen great benefits. My husband is a chiropractor and ocassionally posts as "Natty's Daddy".

Hi, My name is LeeAnne. My husband's name is Roger. We have a daughter named Hannah Michaela who has LOBPI causing,Erb's, Klumpke's and Horner's Syndrome. When she was born she had 3 broken ribs and it took them 20 minutes to resuscitate her. By God's grace there was no brain damage. She has neuroma's at C-5 and C-6,C-7 was fine and C-8,T-1 and T-2 were avulsed. She had primary surgery at 11 months and Mod Quad on Feb. 6,2002.

Michaela loves books and being read to. She makes up stories from the pictures if no one is available for reading.She also loves her bicycle,scooter,swingset and swimming. Her favorite shows right now are Dora, Caillou, and Sagwa (or anything nick jr or PBS).She also likes crafts. Mentally she's sharp as a tack!!!! She's our one and only. LeeAnne

Welcome all new people!! My name is Christy. My daughter Brittney, our first born, has a left BPI. She is now 10 and is in the 4th grade. She has a moderate C5 & C6 stretch injury and has had no surgeries. She has always had great finger movement but her arm was completely limp for months before we saw any arm or shoulder movement. At around 4 months she could lift her straight arm off of the ground alittle if she was on her back, and her biceps came in very slowly after that. Her hand to mouth movement never did come without compensating. So today at 10 years old Brittney cannot supinate completely without compensating, or lift her arm straight up all of the way or straight to the side but she is creative and has her own way of doing things. She is so full of life, on the hyper side, and is always laughing about something - and she has always been able to make others laugh - especially me! She has lots of friends, loves school, her pets, writing in her journal, anything glittery or sparkely, monkeys, making up songs and dances, playing soccer and swimming on the swimteam. I have another daughter, Sabrina, who is 5-1/2, in Kindergarten and was a planned C-section.

What a great idea! I'm definitely printing it out for future reference.

My name is Kathleen, and my husband Craig and I live in MD. I have 2 children and 1 due in August. Abby will be 3 in May and Josh (lobpi) just turned 1 on March 13th.
Josh had nerve graft surgery when he was 5.5 months old at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He can now army crawl, pull himself up occassionally, and will hopefully start cruising soon. Josh loves to dance, make noise, and throw balls. He is also a very determined child, which I know God did on purpose to help him overcome his injury.

Hi,
My name is Stephanie and I live in Oregon with my husband Scott and our two children Nicole 3yrs. and Grant(LOBPI) 2years. Grant had the mod/quad and pec release at TCH on Nov. 7th 2002. Grant has PT 2X week and Swim 1X week. Welcome to all the newcomers to the board and thank you to all the "veterans" for you encouragement and advice.

Hi my name is Jodi. I have a 3 year old daughter (Bailey) with LOBPI. She was 10 pounds at birth. She has had three surgeries all at TCH. She had a nerve graft at 6 1/2 months, ModQuad and total pec release at 21 months, and Capsulodesis and total pec release at 3 years. Yes she had two total pec releases. It seems a couple of fiber somehow grew back together. Dr. Nath said he has only seen this a handful of times. Lucky us!
Anyway Bailey loves Barbie, Cinderella, Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer. She is a very smart and strong willed little girl.
I also have a son (Noah) who is 6 months old who was delivered by a C-section. My husband's name is Robert.
We live in Washington State. I found the board when my daughter was 4 months old. Through the board I met Peggy Ferguson and Julia Aten. They live close to me and have been life savers.
I am not really a regular board user. I kinda come and go. If I can help by sharing our experiences anyone please feel free to email us at robnjodia@olypen.com.

Hi. My name is Debbie, and my husbands name is David.
We have Andrew who is rbpi from birth. He is bright,
and full of energy! We also have 3 other children,
two after Andrew who were born c-section.
Andrew weighed 9# 13 0z. #2 child, Rt. Bp injury
Sierra weighed 8# 9 0z. #1 child,
Jacob weighed 11 # 13 0z. #3 child, c-section
Sydney weighed 10# 10 oz. #4 child, c-section
I found this board back in October of last year,
and it is a great place to learn.
Nice to meet you.

Hi
My name is Sherry. I have a 6 year old named Sam with LOBPI. He has had no surgeries and has had a lot of PT and OT but is finished now. We are lightly discussing surgery but we feel it will not benefit him at this point. He does great with a swing set bar we have hung in the living room off a beam. It has really helped build up his strength and he loves swinging on it. I also have a 5 month old, planned c-section of course. We live in PA.

Hi I'm Cindy mom to Melanie (2 1/2) and Matthew (1) both robpi. Melanie recovered around six weeks. She loves Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Bear in the Big Blue house and Veggietales, along with the Wiggles, Rolie Polie and a couple of more. Matthew also had phrenic nerve damage which required him to stay in the hospital for a month on oxygen. When he was born he was not breathing. He had primary surgery almost six months ago, C5 rupture, C6 avulsed, C7&8 huge, huge, huge neuroma which was left because his hand/wrist function was good (he had none prior to us starting acupuncture) Matthew has pt/ot/acupuncture/chiropractic and reiki energy. Matthew likes to watch Elmo and pretty much whatever else his sister is watching. He just started cruising and I hope he walks on his own soon. He gets very frustrated seeing his sister run around and he can't do that yet. He does roll or creep to get things.