Summer and too hot always to wear a t-shirt underneath the shirt. Kindly enough my request for a low profile cosmetic arm got approved.
And today I picked up that arm. Who would have thunk it. Having this rather simple arm on feel absolutely great. What a light and useful little thing!
I can use it to type, and it is perfect to watch movies on my cell phone.
So obviously, the guys that came up with this did something right.
A look under the hood is in order:
The parts used are from a line of products of the "New Life Laboratories", a division of Kingsley Manufacturing Co. What you can see here is the seriously padded and damped wrist connector. The hand thus can be adjusted by rotation, yet it is neither loose nor does it move by itself.
The hand itself features a semi rigid mounting foam that seems to be rather sloppily applied. There are bubble inclusions all over:
But this hand contains thick wires for the fingers. With a bit of patience, I can adjust the hand. That is what I did to be able to hold the iPhone. And underneath that "New Life" silicone glove, it does not matter whether some big bubbles sit in the prosthetic hand's foam.
"A prosthetic is something that can really assist people in going on with life, feeling like a whole person, versus having to be forced to walk around for their life with a scar, with something that makes them not feel so full." -- Chrissy Steltz
The fit on the stump is typical for a well made silicone liner pin lock system - great. Beyond that, no mechanical or myoelectric hand I saw had quite that emotional impact on me as this cosmetic arm.
It feels absolutely great to wear it. I have not felt as "whole" since a while. Sure, it is not as mechanically functional as other things one could wear - but extra grasping may be really overrated compared to 70's B-movie-style silicone looks. Also, this arm may not be the latest in gadgetry but it does exude a platinum quality serene feeling of complete reliability. I use it to feel symmetric, to hold items by squeezing them against my body or a surface, to type, to carry and to hold stuff.