Almost every action we take helps towards something in the grand scheme of things. This weekend I get to help my best friend and his girlfriend move to their new apartment, but how about when you are helping someone that you don’t know? When you really begin to analyze the impact of your “help”, you realize that help has a never ending infinite rippling effect that unleashes all sorts of events; I’m sorry if the picture that I’m painting is starting to look a little metaphysical, but “help” is just a fraction of the intricate connection that we all share with one another in the universe!

Lending a hand

Three days ago I had the opportunity to help the office’s anaplastologist; now, I will make the assumption that you don’t know what an anaplastologist does, because I my self didn't know what it meant either until three days ago, so I will explain. An anaplastologist is the person who practices anaplastology. Anaplastology deals with the creation of prosthetics for absent, disfigured, or malformed parts of the face and the body. The anaplastologist will basically recreate a body part and enhance it cosmetically to match the person using the prosthesis. Anaplastoly is not only used in the medical field, but also in the movie industry.

Now that I’ve explained what the anaplastologist does, I will segue back to helping him! I had the pleasure of helping the anaplastologist by allowing him to cast a mold of my right hand for a patient who is missing a right hand. The mold of my hand will be used to cover a myoelectric prosthetic arm for the patient. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to help out. Even though I don’t know the patient, I’m certain that he will be very happy to have a cover for his myeolectric prosthesis.

What goes around comes around

In the grand scheme of things, the patient will be able to have functionality from his right side, which will allow him to do more things; therefore he is more independent, and now his self esteem will increase; which in turn brings happiness to his family and friends, who will spread that happiness with others in their lives, and some day that happiness will eventually get back to me!

In case you would like to get some more information about anaplastology I've placed two links at the bottom for the Board for Certification In Clinical Anaplastology (BCCA) and for the International Anaplastology Association (IAA).

Board for Certification In Clinical Anaplastology

International Anaplastology Association

♦  Fully articulating

♦  Key grip

♦  Pinch grip

♦  Finger point

♦  Controlled in a similar way to other myo-electric hands currently available.

♦  Integrated electronics monitor movement of the mechanical elements.

♦  Hand may be custom programmed to suit individual.

♦  Lighter than existing products.

♦  Available at an affordable price.

♦  Includes world’s first powered wrist with rotation as well as flexion/extension.

♦  Advanced silicone skin available in 19 different skin shades.

I’m very excited to see the impact Bebionic will have on the upper limb prosthetic industry. Overall, the prosthetic industry is working diligently on a few key projects that will pave the way to newer and better prosthetic technologies, each of them improving the lives of people affected by limb loss; allowing them to increase their functional potential.


RSLSteeper: Bebionic Pre-Launch World Premier Press Release


Bebionic website 


For more information on Orthopadie Technik World Conference 

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I started to wonder about the origin of this “Hallmark Holiday”. So I did what anybody with a question like that would do in this day and age. I opened up my internet browser, went to Google, and I searched for “Valentine’s Day History”, then, lo and behold! Someone had taken the time to write a very good article about the history of Valentine’s Day on Wikipidia.

As it turns out the holiday originates from various Christian saints whose names where Valentine. Interestingly enough, none of their martyrdom stories had anything related to romance or love; in fact, the Catholic Church removed the holiday from their calendar because there was no evidence that St. Valentine’s Day had any correlation to a celebration of love at all. The article went further into some other theories as to how the now commercial holiday might have come to represent a celebration of love, romance, and friendship. Among them was a theory that ties the holiday to Greco-Roman pagan celebrations in the month of February devoted to fertility and love called Lupercalia.

What is love? Why is there a need to celebrate love? In my opinion love is an emotion so innate to the human spirit that we can find some sort of representation of it in every part of the world. Here in the U.S. love and romance play a huge role in our society. Now days we have reality shows about love like the Bachelor, we have whole website’s like eharmony or match.com devoted to helping the user find their “soul mate”, Hollywood is always cranking out some sort of romance movie like the one I watched last weekend “When in Rome”.

All of this emphasis on love, romance and finding our other half is awesome, but I ask, what about loving ourselves? What about showing some self love? There is so much focus on loving the other person that we forget about ourselves it seems. Do you ever recall looking in the mirror and telling yourself “I love you!” does it seem awkward to do such a thing? The first few times I did it I couldn’t help but laugh at myself feeling a bit ridiculous; but then it made sense. How can I love someone when I don’t even know how to love myself?

You really don’t have to stand in front of the mirror and proclaim your love to yourself; however, if there is anything I would like you to consider is; how often do you pamper yourself? When was the last time you gave yourself some love; a hug perhaps, told yourself you where awesome, or gave yourself some kudos for achieving something?

In conclusion, the golden rule applies in reverse: do on to yourself what you would like others to do on to you! Go ahead give it a try, you will soon find a big smile on your face, because just as others are filled with happiness when you show them you love them, you will be happy when you show yourself some love, and if you can’t say love…

Wikipidia Valentine’s Day History article

I know that the reason my little cousins enjoy watching me do a back flip off a wall is because the trick is evidence that we are not limited by our environment, for them the trick is an extraordinary act that inspires them to dream about achieving the inconceivable.

I know that is how my little cousins feel because that is the same way I feel when I watch Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham run off a ramp and do a back flip on a wheel chair!

Aaron Fotheringham is a wheelchair athlete from Las Vegas, Nevada. Aaron was born with Spina Bifida, a birth defect that affects the spinal cord. However, Aaron didn’t let Spina Bifida stop him, for Aaron Spina Bifida only meant that he had to figure out a different way to do things.

It is that approach that allowed Aaron to ride in skate parks at the age of 8. Although it was not easy at first, Aaron never gave up and eventually polished his skills to the point where he was able to win the 2005 Vegas AmJam BMX finals.

What can we learn from Aaron Fotheringham? Are obstacles really there to stop us from achieving our goals or are they there to inspire us into looking for an alternate route to achieve our goals? Perhaps obstacles are only there to make the flavor of victory and accomplishment a lot sweeter!

Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham’s Bio

Ever heard of the Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund? Also known as (BFAAF), if your answer is yes then I can remind you of their existence, and if your answer is no, then I can make you aware of them!

The Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund (BFAAF) was established in 1995 with the mission to promote quality prosthetic care for all amputees. In order to achieve its mission the BFAAF provides prosthetics to amputees who cannot afford one; however, the individual seeking the aid from the BFAAF cannot have other funding resources. As a matter of fact, the BFAAF will request that a proof of denial of any other funding resources be provided at the time the application is submitted. Since 1996 the BFAAF has helped over 1,200 amputees receive funding for prosthetic rehabilitation in 30 states and 21 foreign countries. That is a very impressive number considering they have only been around for about 14 years.

If you or someone is interested in seeking the aid from the BFAAF all you have to do is submit a complete application along with your prosthetist together with a $25.00 non-refundable fee within 30 days of receiving the application from the BFAAF. The BFAAF gives priority to amputee applicants who are seeking initial prosthetic rehabilitation, are first time amputees, are US citizens and have in general good health.

The application will then be reviewed and verified by the BFAAF, the review process will take between four to six weeks. In that time the applicant will be reviewed and interviewed by one of the BFAAF’s review committee members. If the applicant is a first time amputee he/she might be required to receive gait training in order to receive the prosthetic.

For more information please call the BFAAF at (561) 391-7601or email them at foundation@t-barr.com.

The Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund (BFAAF) website

As I read both articles it dawned on me more and more that we are all responsible for how sweet we want to make our lemonade; that it is all about taking that “disability” and turning it into ability, and although I do not suffer from limb loss I agree with Paralympian Scott Winkler when he said, “Everybody somewhere in some shape or form has a disability.” Therefore, I am fighting my own revolution as well! Working hard at making me some sweet lemonade and I want to encourage everyone reading this blog to do the same!

The human spirit knows no bounds! We are only limited by our own limitations. A perfect example is the revolutionary story of Tanesha Jones from Ontario, Canada. Tanesha suffered and infection triggered by pneumococcal pneumonia that resulted in sepsis. The infection left doctors with the tough decision of amputating her hands above the wrist and her feet above the ankle in order to save her life, but Tanesha now a quadruple amputee kept a positive attitude over all adversity, taking responsibility for her life and making life adapt to her limb loss.

The only thing constant is change! Like the change triggered by the revolutionary story of Oscar Pistorius the “Blade Runner” who took the IAAF to court in 2008 because they tried to ban him from able-bodied competitions, claiming his artificial legs gave him an unfair advantage. Now we get to see him compete at both the Paralympics and Olympics in 2012.
At times we might feel like we are all alone in whatever situation we are in; but is all just an illusion, all we have to do is look around and we’ll find that we are not alone, everyone is fighting a revolution! Everyone is making lemonade! Every time I read stories like the ones above it empowers me to keep on fighting, to keep on squeezing those lemons as hard as I can because like Gil Scott-Heron said, “the revolution will not be televised, the revolution is live!”
 

Tnesha Jones Revolutionary Story

The revolutionary story of Oscar Pistorius the "Blade Runner"

Nathalie Carney was born without a left hand. Nathalie was born with a congenital abnormality known as Symbrachydactyly, which is characterized by "nubbins", small stumps where the finger would have developed on the hand. Symbrachydactyly results when one or more fingers fail to form properly during embryonic development. Although at the moment it is not possible to determine what causes symbrachydactyly, it is not believed to be caused by hereditary conditions. Symbrachydactyly occurs in approximately one out of every 32,000 births and in most cases like Nathalie’s only one hand is affected.

Most children born with symbrachidactyly are able to adapt and live a fully functional life. Symbrachydactyly is treated in a case by case basis, some treatments for symbrachidactyly include surgery and in other cases no surgery is needed. In Nathalie Carney’s case, thanks to Hanger Prosthetics in Springdale and The Inner Wheel, a nonprofit organization, she now has a myoelectric prosthetic arm which will allow her the use of both hands to hold objects and even ride a bicycle as Nathalie said!
 

Read about Nathalie Carney’s entire story