Amputation
Re: Amputation
Hi folks
Long, long time since I posted here. Sorry. Don't get to this side of the cyber pond as much as I used to. So Suzie and Henry, I wasn't ignoring you, I just haven't been on this site for ages.
It's now one year since I went for the amp. Things are great. Don't know what happened to the working prosthetic that the hospital was to supply for me, as the fitting people haven't contacted me for months. I should chase them up, but to be honest, I'm so used to doing everything one-handed, I don't really know what advantage there would be in having a working false arm. (apart from banging in the odd nails, and wrapping xmas prezzies.
I saw a bloke in a bikers mag whose false arm was totally metal rods and linkages, like something from Terminator. It looked so cool, I might go down that route, rather than the realistic latex route. I'd hate anyone to think I was 'normal' !
Long, long time since I posted here. Sorry. Don't get to this side of the cyber pond as much as I used to. So Suzie and Henry, I wasn't ignoring you, I just haven't been on this site for ages.
It's now one year since I went for the amp. Things are great. Don't know what happened to the working prosthetic that the hospital was to supply for me, as the fitting people haven't contacted me for months. I should chase them up, but to be honest, I'm so used to doing everything one-handed, I don't really know what advantage there would be in having a working false arm. (apart from banging in the odd nails, and wrapping xmas prezzies.
I saw a bloke in a bikers mag whose false arm was totally metal rods and linkages, like something from Terminator. It looked so cool, I might go down that route, rather than the realistic latex route. I'd hate anyone to think I was 'normal' !
Re: Amputation
I don't wear an arm either. I cannot do much with one and I did not trade one dead arm only to wear another.
I like the terminator arm idea though
I like the terminator arm idea though
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admin
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Re: Amputation
Well, it's been a while since I have been on here. I'll say I am pleased to see this post at the top of the board. It was precisely the one I was interested in. I am four years into my BPI with no use of the right arm. It does not slow me down much http://eastcoastaholic.com/images/robbeantotail.jpg Still skateboarding like crazy. (Check the rest of that site out, it's done by me)Anyway I going in for surgery for some carple tunnel degeneration from overuse in my left wrist. While I am there I am going to undergo the process of consulting amputation of my right arm. I can see being much happier with the freedom of not placing my arm here or there, or how it looks in a short sleeve shirt, or how my shoulder will barely support the arm, even though I had the shoulder fusion deal. I am more than ready for liberation. My question would be one what kind of reaction did you get from people, freinds and strangers? Where on the arm was the amputation? How long did the healing process take on the stump? I am overley exited about this development http://www.dirtragmag.com/articles/arti ... y=features There are a couple of links on the bottom describing in detail what this guy has gone through to get back to a level of riding that can keep you going. This was a dream of mine since they broke the news to me. I miss riding my mountain bike more than surfing at times. Well, check some of that stuff out. This board is quite insightfull for any BPI. Thank you all....
Re: Amputation
Well, it's been a while since I have been on here. I'll say I am pleased to see this post at the top of the board. It was precisely the one I was interested in. I am four years into my BPI with no use of the right arm. It does not slow me down much http://eastcoastaholic.com/images/robbeantotail.jpg Still skateboarding like crazy. (Check the rest of that site out, it's done by me)Anyway I going in for surgery for some carple tunnel degeneration from overuse in my left wrist. While I am there I am going to undergo the process of consulting amputation of my right arm. I can see being much happier with the freedom of not placing my arm here or there, or how it looks in a short sleeve shirt, or how my shoulder will barely support the arm, even though I had the shoulder fusion deal. I am more than ready for liberation. My question would be one what kind of reaction did you get from people, freinds and strangers? Where on the arm was the amputation? How long did the healing process take on the stump? I am overley exited about this development http://www.dirtragmag.com/articles/arti ... y=features There are a couple of links on the bottom describing in detail what this guy has gone through to get back to a level of riding that can keep you going. This was a dream of mine since they broke the news to me. I miss riding my mountain bike more than surfing at times. Well, check some of that stuff out. This board is quite insightfull for any BPI. Thank you all....
Re: Amputation
I had mine amputated just above the elbow. That leaves some arm to fill a t-shirt sleeve. I have my long sleeve shirts tailored so I don't have to pin them and buy coats with pockets to tuck the sleeve in.
The stump did not take long to heal and I was very glad to be free of the arm.
People look, especially at the beach, but that's normal. Kids are the best. They'll ask, if their parents don't stop them, and then are ok once I tell them about it. I always tell the parents that it is ok to ask. Always better to know.
I don't wear a prosthesis. I have so little movement that it was non-operational and I've grown very good at one-handed everything.
On a final note, I was very ready to have it done, and I get funny looks when I tell people that it was an easy decision for me. It became a turning point where I left baggage behind with the arm and moved forward.
I was tempted to have it stuffed with the one finger extended and then mounted in the rear window of my car, but my wife tells me that would have been in bad taste.
Good luck!!
The stump did not take long to heal and I was very glad to be free of the arm.
People look, especially at the beach, but that's normal. Kids are the best. They'll ask, if their parents don't stop them, and then are ok once I tell them about it. I always tell the parents that it is ok to ask. Always better to know.
I don't wear a prosthesis. I have so little movement that it was non-operational and I've grown very good at one-handed everything.
On a final note, I was very ready to have it done, and I get funny looks when I tell people that it was an easy decision for me. It became a turning point where I left baggage behind with the arm and moved forward.
I was tempted to have it stuffed with the one finger extended and then mounted in the rear window of my car, but my wife tells me that would have been in bad taste.
Good luck!!
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jennyb
- Posts: 1183
- Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:24 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: January 1980 Yamaha RD200 vs 16 wheeler truck, result, 1 totally paralysed right arm. I was 21, now 54. I had no surgery, I don't regret this. Decided to totally ignore limitations (easily done aged 21) adapted very quickly to one handed life, got married, had 3 kids, worked- the effect of the injury on my life (once the pain stopped being constant) was minimal and now, aged 54, I very rarely even think of it, unless I bash it or it gets cold, then I wish I'd had it amputated :) Except for a steering knob on my car, I have no adaptations to help with life, mainly because I honestly don't think of myself as disabled and the only thing I can't do is peel potatoes, which is definitely a good thing.
Re: Amputation
This winter is the first time I've really thought seriously about amputation. I'm 23 yrs post injury and I've managed fine up to now, but the weight of the arm has pulled my spine in all sorts of directions, and the cold here in NZ has given me a lot of pain. I know amputation won't stop the 'central pain' but as it seems to be the hand getting cold that starts the pain off, I'm hoping amputation can stop the pain starting. Well, the pain from cold, at least. I'm also finding that any kind of touch on the bpi arm, including clothes, is now painful, so I have a kind of constant burning I never used to have. I was told I should have an amputation way back, but I told the docs where to stuff that idea and forgot my arm for the next 20 years. It's not so easy to ignore now, so altho I don't regret the decision, I do think maybe now's the time to think about the chop. It's a big step tho....Henry, love the idea of mounting the arm in the car, I thought of getting mine enbalmed and using it as a kind of long distance child discipline device, I could throw it at the kids from quite a distance I reckon :0) Might be a problem tho if one of my dogs thought I was throwing a stick....and imagine the neighbours faces when the dog walks past with my arm in his mouth hahaaaaaa
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jennyb
- Posts: 1183
- Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:24 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: January 1980 Yamaha RD200 vs 16 wheeler truck, result, 1 totally paralysed right arm. I was 21, now 54. I had no surgery, I don't regret this. Decided to totally ignore limitations (easily done aged 21) adapted very quickly to one handed life, got married, had 3 kids, worked- the effect of the injury on my life (once the pain stopped being constant) was minimal and now, aged 54, I very rarely even think of it, unless I bash it or it gets cold, then I wish I'd had it amputated :) Except for a steering knob on my car, I have no adaptations to help with life, mainly because I honestly don't think of myself as disabled and the only thing I can't do is peel potatoes, which is definitely a good thing.
Re: Amputation
Hi Rob, have your ears been burning? Liz was talking about you on the EZ board tbpi site the other day, here's the thread http://pub28.ezboard.com/fadultswithbra ... =645.topic
I couldn't access the rest of your website from that pic, but thanks for posting it, your pics have been a great inspiration to many, one bloke has taken up snowboarding as a result of seeing your skateboarding pics, so thanks again for posting :0)
I couldn't access the rest of your website from that pic, but thanks for posting it, your pics have been a great inspiration to many, one bloke has taken up snowboarding as a result of seeing your skateboarding pics, so thanks again for posting :0)
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jennyb
- Posts: 1183
- Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:24 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: January 1980 Yamaha RD200 vs 16 wheeler truck, result, 1 totally paralysed right arm. I was 21, now 54. I had no surgery, I don't regret this. Decided to totally ignore limitations (easily done aged 21) adapted very quickly to one handed life, got married, had 3 kids, worked- the effect of the injury on my life (once the pain stopped being constant) was minimal and now, aged 54, I very rarely even think of it, unless I bash it or it gets cold, then I wish I'd had it amputated :) Except for a steering knob on my car, I have no adaptations to help with life, mainly because I honestly don't think of myself as disabled and the only thing I can't do is peel potatoes, which is definitely a good thing.
Re: Amputation
Just anothr quickie re amputation....studies have been carried out in the past that found that virtually NOONE wears a prosthetic arm after amputation, as Henry said, why swap one dead arm for another? People DO wear useful Terminator type prostheses with clamps etc attached, one guy in the uk finished his nurse training with a flail arm like that. I think the 'normal' peeps out there (some of whom are doctors) think that people like us really care about looking 'normal' like them, they don't realise that a few years down the track you just get so well adjusted that you regard the funny looks as not your problem. That's what I've found anyway. A flail arm is pretty weird looking, my arm is very wasted and decorated with a purple claw hand on the end, amputation would probably make me look more normal (whatever normal is.....) kids at my son's school dare each other to touch it, the first I know of it is when they run away screaming afterwards lolol :0)
Re: Amputation
Kids usually ask what happened to the arm once it was amputated. Some of them assume that there is a gravesite where it is buried waiting for the rest of me to join it, while others wonder a bit worriedly if it was put out with the garbage. When I tell them about the incinerator, it grosses them out.
I do not have any surface triggered pain on the stump. All that rest from my non elbow to my non palm. It does, however, get cold to the touch.
I have some pull, push, and shrug motion, and I work on that at the gym. My other arm has never given me any trouble. I was a weightlifter before and have stayed with it. So the arm is very strong.
Good luck with your decision!
I do not have any surface triggered pain on the stump. All that rest from my non elbow to my non palm. It does, however, get cold to the touch.
I have some pull, push, and shrug motion, and I work on that at the gym. My other arm has never given me any trouble. I was a weightlifter before and have stayed with it. So the arm is very strong.
Good luck with your decision!
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admin
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Re: Amputation
Hello Ocnsky,
I'll try to answer a few of your questions:
First of all it sounds like you're in the right frame of mind to go for the op. Some people start thinking about it way too early, hoping it'll get rid of the pain. By itself, the amp won't.
I wear short sleeved shirts a lot now... I never did when I had a skinny arm hanging down with a claw at the end. I had my amp at the bicep, so nothing at all pokes out from the shirt sleeve. People don't seem to react to it at all. It's so obviously not there, that people just accept it. Much better than all those idiots constantly asking about the arm, and "how long till it gets better?", etc. I'm very self concious of it if I go shirtless, but its no worse to look at than a withered arm.
To give to an idea of how simple recovery is: Operation on Monday, went home Tuesday, Back to work Thursday, Dressings off 2 weeks later. Job done and sorted !
Wish you well.
I'll try to answer a few of your questions:
First of all it sounds like you're in the right frame of mind to go for the op. Some people start thinking about it way too early, hoping it'll get rid of the pain. By itself, the amp won't.
I wear short sleeved shirts a lot now... I never did when I had a skinny arm hanging down with a claw at the end. I had my amp at the bicep, so nothing at all pokes out from the shirt sleeve. People don't seem to react to it at all. It's so obviously not there, that people just accept it. Much better than all those idiots constantly asking about the arm, and "how long till it gets better?", etc. I'm very self concious of it if I go shirtless, but its no worse to look at than a withered arm.
To give to an idea of how simple recovery is: Operation on Monday, went home Tuesday, Back to work Thursday, Dressings off 2 weeks later. Job done and sorted !
Wish you well.
