Voices of prosthesis users, part 1

Guest post by Helen Millward

Tony was born without his left arm below the elbow. He visited us at Keele University a couple of weeks ago to discuss his thoughts on the current upper limb prosthetic options and his views on his own prosthesis use.

Tony is retired and enjoys an active lifestyle which includes frequent visits to the gym and driving a manual car, for both of which he relies heavily on his prosthesis.

He uses his prosthesis for the duration of the day, and prefers to use it for all tasks, unlike some users who find it easier to do certain tasks without their prosthesis. Tony explains, “I put it on it in the morning and take it off at night”, as “…to take it off, brings attention to it”.

Aesthetics matter to Tony. He wants his prosthesis to be both functional and as unnoticeable as possible. He is pleased with the way in which his prosthesis facilitates the use of cutlery when eating away from home. “If I’m eating, I wedge a knife between the thumb and the finger [of the prosthesis] and I can cut with my left arm and lift the food up with my right.”

At first, Tony was given a tool that was a combined knife and fork, with a blade on one side and two prongs on the other. “And that was great to a point, but when you go in a restaurant and you eat with something like that, everybody looks around, everybody stares and that’s not what you want, not what I want, so I quickly got rid of that and developed this way of cutting with an ordinary knife and fork.”

Access to several different attachments, such as a hook (useful for the gym) and a typing tool make the prosthesis useful for a variety of everyday tasks.

Although very satisfied with the range of activities he can perform using his prosthesis, Tony notes that the attachments are not helpful during certain activities, such as swimming. He suggests that a change in the design and weight of the prosthesis would be beneficial in making this activity easier to manage whilst wearing his prosthetic limb.

Tony feels lucky that he was born without his left arm, rather than the right (he is right handed), and that he was born with an elbow, as this makes many tasks much easier for him to complete. He has developed innovative ways of completing everyday tasks, such as zipping up a jacket and tying his shoe laces.

My whole life has been adapting. I look at a problem and say “how can I do this”, not “I can’t do it”. I look at it and say, “I know I can do this” and I find a way.

Tony’s feelings towards his prosthesis are very positive. Indeed, he credits his need for a prosthesis with pushing him to succeed, and giving him a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards life.