Hi! Thanks for stopping by! This page is intended to share tips and techniques that I’ve personally came up with in order to live my life as an amputee. I’m posting them here in the hopes that they may help others too. And maybe along the way some of you could teach me a thing or two.
I intend to post as I can, sometimes you you may find tons of new stuff and other times…. well crickets…
When I lost my arm, I found myself in Occupational Therapy. The therapists weren’t used to having to deal with arm amps, since there aren’t many of us. So I’ve had to be inventive along the way. Also, I try not to use “adaptive” tools when ever possible. The reason is that there’s always a hardware store, supermarket, variety store, etc, near by. There is almost never an “adaptive” store around so if you forget, lose or break the needed widget, using regular items means what you can run out and get one.
Before I get started, a little about me, not that you care, but hell this IS my page after all.
My story of becoming an amp started back on June 8th of 2013 I had a motorcycle wreck. Going in to a left hand turn at about 45-50 mph the kickstand on my chopper deployed. I couldn’t make the turn and I hit the guardrail. I was thrown, and hit the vertical support post of the guardrail with my shoulder, ripping my right arm from my body and whipping me around. That broke my femur in to places, fractured 4 ribs, lacerated my liver, gave me 6 stitches in my left, a huge bloody lip and 3 broken vertebrae in my neck. Yes I can actually say that becoming an amp was a pain in the neck.. badump bump..
So lets begin, shall we?
You’ll find my articles on the left side of the page listed under How-Tos.
DISARMED 
Hi im not an amputee .but was checkin out ur page.i think it awesome that this is available for people.easy to understand directions.the little things we take for granted say such as pouring a beer..what ur doin for people is super cool..half my face was paralyzed for about a year. I took for granted just takin a drink of water. Couldnt do it without a straw or id wear it..the little everyday things we dont even think biut doing..i hope u found some way to ride again. I know for some people it makes them whole again..thanks for shareing.
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Dawn, thank you for your comment! Yes I am back on the bike, the picture in the header is me on a trip from NY to Sturgis SD. When I first lost my arm, I found that no one really knew how to do things single handedly, so I had to figure out how to do this stuff on my own. I thought it might help others to teach them what I’ve learned.
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Hi Dave. Thanks for taking the time to post your tips and techniques. I lost my right arm above the elbow Nov. 2014 (traumatic) along with broken back and some other bones and then my right leg below knee Jan. 2015 (due to post-op infection) I also stayed in a rehab facility (nursing home) for 8 months and my physical / occupational therapist were pretty clueless about arm amputee specific techniques. I now live by myself in an apartment and have figured out ways to do many things on my own and am learning more every day. Your right about not much help available specific to upper extremity amps since we are a minority. So I was really glad to find your page. I’ve already learned some and I’ll be interested in any future additions you make.
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Thank you! I’m glad I could help! I’m going to keep posting, I have a number of other things on the post to-do list. I have some kitchen things in the pipeline.
If you have some tricks and tips, send them my way. I’m interested in how others do things too and I’ll include the good ideas here from others too. I’d like this to be by all of us, to all of us!
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