United Brachial Plexus Network

<t>Trials would be tough... The people in that discipline have never stopped amazing me. I stand in awe when I watch Hans Ray do his thing... I know I can do a small bunny-hop on my road bike, but even that can be pretty sketchy. I tried and tried to wheelie before my crash but never was successful ...

<t>Before my accident in 2002, I raced road. I was a (racing age) 15 yr. old junior. I rode the junior nat'ls and placed in the top third in the crit, TT, and RR.<br/> <br/> Since then, I have resumed training (though much less only because of "less than stellar" grades in school) and racing only TT...

<t>keep yourself concerned, but try not to be paranoid about it. for one thing, if you think about it, whatever amount of energy is being spent on worrying could be better used for healing. also, keep in mind that you're not even a week out of surgery. still do keep in touch w/ the docs so you are s...

before my first surgery, I was terrified. I didn't trust my doctors. especially since I only met them a few days before. Now I look up to them so much.

john

<t>hey<br/> <br/> I have very little tricep. "one unit" the EMG guy said. they used the contralateral C7 (cross-neck) surgery to intervate bicep. I do not have any bicep yet, but we are not expecting to see any results until ~June.<br/> <br/> As far as numbness goes. there is basically nothing- no p...

<t>diargasm,<br/> <br/> do your physical therapy that the docs percribed for you. for example, one thing they told me was that my arm couldn't be raised forewards and sideways ___ degrees for the first ___ months following surgery. after a few months, they raised that number of degrees. The nerves w...

how hard is it for you to change gears? do you use your BPI arm to shift or to hold the wheel?

thanks,
john

hey,

assuming you're talking about the numbness in your good arm...

what I remember (for me they used a contralateral C7) was numbness in my thumb and forefinger; that was temporary. did you have a cont. C7 in your operation?

john

<t>hey,<br/> <br/> after 1 year from my first surgery. I can drag an approx. 5lb. weight across a table (the result of a gracilis muscle). Also, I have very weak tricep, a little bit of bicep, and my shoulder became much stronger very soon post-op. in the second surgery (10 months ago) a second grac...

<t>hey,<br/> <br/> I know that the docs said that they were confident in the recovery of lung capacity over the loss of the phrenic nerve. but there are world champion paralympic atheletes who have lost their phrenic nerve and say they do not know that they lost it. the docs. are more concerned w/ r...