As a new unilateral below elbow amputee, I feel I could give you a ton of “advice”. But really, if you just complete this one task, you will learn all you need. Remember, I said “complete”.
“With arm amputation, you will seek to compensate for the orthopedic asymmetry and attain the best control and grip geometry there is. Your task is to attain, to seek, to purchase, to get made, a body-powered prosthesis with a hook, one that can endure full daily use for at least six months without breaking, wobbling, emitting unpleasant odors, causing rashes on the arm, pressing under the armpit, and without any other complications. That’s the kind of prosthesis you are tasked to seek. You organize, coordinate, appoint, ask, demand its creation, starting with placing this requirement to a prosthetist, to a prosthetic technician. That’s what they should build for you first and foremost. It is your task to keep on it: they should keep improving it until the prosthesis precisely does that. If it fails to achieve that, as usually any body powered prosthesis does at first, you should go back to the orthopedic shop. You go there again and again and again. You’ll ride them hard. Very hard. You’ll show them a new world, one they’ve never understood, one they’ve never wished to venture into – the world of real function, real comfort, real sustainability, and robust, cost-effective design. And they will lie to you. They’ll tarnish your name. They’ll fail a thousand times. They will cry, curse, plead, and whimper. They’ll beg you. You’ll face extreme resistance. Manufacturers will genuinely despise you; you’ll even get to know their “customer service”. But you won’t give up. Because it’s only when your body-powered prosthesis endures six continuous months of full daily use, without any of the complications also that I listed above, that your first mission, your task, is accomplished. On this journey, you’ll learn and witness everything there is to say about arm prosthetics.”
Later, you can take it further. If you feel – at any stage – like taking the core build work out of others’ hands and doing it yourself, I could understand. That was the route I took too. There are a few things I placed on this website that illustrates this path. But, this task is a personal one, everyone will have to embark on this path by themselves.
