Moving Right Along...

Yesterday was a big day for Jane. She bid farewell to her first prosthetic arm and got a shiny new arm. And this one has moving parts.

Jane wears a lightweight harness that connects to a small lever that closes the "hand" (or "terminal device" as the prosthetist calls it). We chose a shape called an adept terminal in order to give her the most functionality. The terminal itself is made by a company in Boulder called TRS. It was designed by an amputee as a better option to the traditional split hook design. Her arm was made by our wonderful prosthetist, Kevin, in Fort Collins.

Every time she puts tension on the cable, either by shrugging her shoulder or by reaching with her prosthesis, the hand closes. This is more intuitive than the traditional devices that open by putting tension on the cable.

So far she is doing pretty well with adjusting to the new arm. It is a bit bulkier than her old arm and it looks more like a medical device, but Ami helped me pick out a super cute fabric to make it look somewhat less industrial (the fabric is laminated over the fiberglass arm).

At this point, she's not to the point where she's picking up objects with her new arm, but she's starting to figure out that it opens and closes when she passes it across her body, so I think she's doing great with it for now. We will continue with her occupational therapy and work towards her being able to use it for everyday tasks.