Robot Arm

[marydell]

Our 7-year old neighbor girl, who is already crazy about Charlie, announced when she met him that "he can get a robot arm, and that'll be better.  They have one for the WII and it works really good."

In fact, he really can have a robot arm, although maybe not for the WII just yet.  There are a lot of different approaches to limb deficiency nowadays, but the orthopedist said he's a good candiate for a lot of options, ranging from no prosthesis at all to a myoelectric arm, that moves based on the wearer's muscle motion.  Cool!  We're starting him with occupational therapy ASAP so that he develops his core muscles correctly--basically, just giving him as much stimulation from the left as possible so he learns to turn that way and move the limb.  I'm going to get a bell I can tie to his sleeve, now that he's starting to turn his head toward sounds.

In a few months, once he starts sitting up, we'll take him to the Rehab Institute of Chicago to talk about a starter prosthesis.  We're not going to have him in one all the time, and we're not in favor of trying to look "normal," but we want make sure he learns the ability to use prosthetics as he grows up so that his options stay open.   We're going to go up and take a tour of their pediatric limb deficiency clinic soonish so we get to know all the people and services.  Yay RIC!  That's where my sister rehabbed 30 years ago after her stroke, and we're excited to be able to give Charlie the opportunity to work with them.

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Have you looked at all (and I'm fairly certain you have) charitable organizations and R&D firms that would donate prosthetics and the like?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

We haven't, actually, because we have very good (for USians) insurance, and good incomes (which is part of why we were a good fit for Charlie). I just don't want him to decide at the age of 30 that he wants to take a year off from work to write a novel or something, and have him in a position where if his prosthetic breaks, he can't drive a car any more. There's a lot that he can learn to do with his upper arm (including steer a car--we have a cousin with the same condition who does that), as long as he's not completely dependent on a prosthetic. Also, we don't want his self-esteem to depend on having two arms...we want prosthetics to become part of his tool kit, rather than becoming part of his mental image of himself.

OTOH, RIC is doing some pretty cool "bionics" R&D...who knows what they'll have going on by the time he's grown up?