United Brachial Plexus Network

I try to do range of motion. I don't think I do it right! LOL... I am right bpi.. and I can only lay on the floor to do any range of motion and I have pully to hang on door. But is it still necessary?

The PT I have been using think that I should always do ROM and stretching... but I am lazy and wonder if it really helps...

Also does anyone know if we have different directions then the babies... I have trouble doing them myself.

Just wondering?????
Kath

Dear Kathleen,
Maybe I'm just older than you, but I don't worry about the range of motion of my left arm. I am more concerned with the range of motion of my abdomen, which continues not to listen to me, and keeps right on growing. I remember being a teenager and wanting to be able to make left turn signals, or hoping that a new class room would have an entrance from the right, so when I walked in the teacher and my classmates would see my "good" arm. I've yet to master in my 57 years the capacity to snap the fingers of my left hand. But, I've managed pretty well with out that particular talent. Barbells were another thing that once caused me some chagrin. I hung out with the athletes - we called them "jocks" back then, for obvious reasons - oops, maybe not so obvious to you - and these guys and I would work out in the gym. I could out press, one-handedly, of course, every one of them. Once in a spasm of egotism, I tried to press one hundred pounds with BOTH arms. HA! I barely got started when my "bad" arm gave out, and the barbell bumped me on the head. The ER doctor gave me twelve stitches in my forehead. It was a good lesson for me in life, and made my judgment keener than it might have been. // I knew that doing what I did with the barbells, was a dumbbell thing to do. Keep up the good . . ., arm, I mean work and get that range of motion under control. Best for the new year, Evan

Well Evan
I hate to say this but I am older. I am 62 Yikes! did I say that... no I only wrote it so that does not count!

The reason I asked about ROM is that a few year ago the bpi started to really act up... and loose range of motion...
I was also loosing the health of the good arm so I was getting anxious.... the doctors were of no help...
So I started to research and 2 years ago I found UBPN.

I have been in PT again for the first time since I was a child and he said that it was necessary for me to do them... but I find it annoying yet I do stretch other wise I find that I hold my arm in a comfort position... I have seen the little ones do the same thing now that I have met some... They seem to compensate the same as adults with obpi...

As for weight lifting!! A few years ago I started to do some weight machines... now I think that is how really put the poor old arm in trouble. I should have been doing sit ups instead... LOL.

You wanted a doorway so no one would notice... I was happy my high school uniform was long sleeve.... hated the color but it was long sleeve... That did not prevent me from bumping the elbow into door knobs...

Kath

Kath,
Yup, I still do ROM and feel guilty that I don't do it more. Get that hubby to give you a full gentle stretch now and then, he can move it beyond what you can do actively and even passively with the pulley and that stretch just feels soooo good. Since my surgery, I do a lot of stretching during the day. It has become a habit, I don't even realize it anymore. Good thing I work in an office that is isolated!
Nancy

Kath......your asking if I do rom??? hahahaha

if you could see me right now you would KNOW i hadn't done any rom for quite some time haha i'm having that problem where everything is going to droopsville at once

actully i am starting my swim aerobics class back up again on jan. 6th and cannot wait !!! i can feel the difference after just the first class!! for me........it is just the right amount of stretching and moving that my arms can take. and to be honest it's the only type of exercise/rom therapy that i feel works properly. it puts no added stress on our already stressed joints and muscles and gives me the freedom to move fluidly for the first time in my life.

ok........ok........it does wonders for getting that drooping ass back where it belongs also

Tina

Your last line is a great reason to do ROM...

Now you have inspired me to join the local pool again.

I can't swim in the water even if it is 86F just freeze....

but they have a great Hot Tub and it is always empty... so I stretch there without the jets on....

I'll kick my legs next time for tummy exercise....

This cookie season has really left its mark on me.... or should I say I just applied it to the hips...LOL

Kath

Unforntunately, they close the pool and hot tub in the winter. They are both outside. I haven't done ROM in years. I haven't had the therapy on the arm because when I slipped a disk, I learned that the therapists at Cleveland clinic were more interested in getting me a TENS unit than exercising. I used it a couple of time, but can't put the leads on myself. Between the OBPI arm and the arthritis all I did was tangle myselp up in adhesive and wire. When I was a kids I used that big wheel with the handle on it and the little wooden stair thing , finger climbing up the wall. My mother did the other exercises and according to her she stopped because all I did was whine. All I remember is feeling like my arm was being ripped out of the socket. When I was a baby she did warm soaks and gentle stryching twice a day, She claims that is why my Erbs arm isn't a lot smaller than the other-doesn't have that shriveled look that she says other kids with Erb's had. Who knows.
When I went for an EMG, the Dr. told me noy you sure learned to use other muscles. wish someone would tell me which ones I am using and if ther is any way to exercise and get the deltoid or biceps to wrok a little. It seems not a soul is interested in a 48 year old injury that I've lived with all my life.
Both hands are really cold and painful in the winter. Not sure if it's Erb's carpal tunnel or neuropathy from the dibetes. Or is it the fibromyalgia.
If ther was a guarantee, I'd donate my body to science when I die and let them look at each nerve and muscle to see if a different lind of treatment or exercise would improve the movement. Pat