Short arms can sometimes be too long

I don’t want to come off as whiny. I really don’t. But I’ve had these thoughts hanging over me for a while…

When my mom met Jordan for the first time, just hours after she was born, my mom said the most optimistic thing. She commented on how Jordan’s lack of elbow will be even better than just missing a hand.

She was wrong. I knew she was wrong.

Boy, I wish she wasn’t wrong.

As Jordan has grown up, I’ve sought every resource possible to help her grow strong and able. Jordan is very strong and able. She’s had prosthetics from an early age to make sure her body has every opportunity to be strong. I’ve also tried to keep up with the many advancements in the prosthetic industry so Jordan may be able to benefit as she gets older and the technology improves.

During my time attending the Hanger Education Fair earlier this year, I learned a lot about traditional prosthetic advancements. I learned even more while Jordan and I built her newest prosthetic arm this summer. I’ve also had a chance to get to know the growing 3D printing communities through leaders of e-NABLE. Most recently, we’ve had a chance to peek into the development of a commercial 3D prosthetic product by the Open Bionics group. (Have you seen these super cool products? Ahhh!)

These are the first three Open Bionics prosthetic designs announced for kids.

The one thing I’ve learned from all of these awesome improvements and changes with prosthetics? So far, many of the new resources can’t benefit Jordan. That’s because there’s a huge difference between people with hand differences (hands that may have partial palms or partial fingers), below elbow differences (arms that stop somewhere after the elbow but may or may not have a wrist) and above elbow differences (arms that stop somewhere before an elbow). The challenges are much different in the leg difference world. Kids really only have access to one type of prosthetic knee until they get bigger.

Jordan is in a strange position as an above elbow amputee. She’s a congenital amputee. She actually has too much arm for an above elbow amputee to benefit from the full array of above elbow prosthetic options. Why? Because prosthetic elbows take up about a quarter to a half the length of a standard humerus bone. A traumatic amputee would never maintain as much length in the humerus because that person couldn’t benefit from using a prosthetic elbow – something that can offer some type of “natural”f bend and possible rotation where that amputee’s elbow used to be. Since Jordan’s arm is too long for those products, her prosthetist needs to create an elbow built outside of her prosthetic. The joints can bend, but can never offer any rotation. That makes it really trick to move a prosthetic arm to accomplish a lot of natural motions.

It also means it’s really, really hard to take advantage of the benefit of 3D prosthetics. So when Jordan sees these awesome advancements in affordable prosthetics, she can’t use them. At least not yet. And boy, I tell you, when she saw the pictures of Open Bionics’ new arms this week, she was jealous. I’m jealous. I’m thrilled to watch the world of prosthetics grow. I realize some day Jordan will probably benefit alongside many other upper limb prosthetic users. We’re a little impatient. But we’ll wait and help the prosthetic world in whatever way we can to encourage it to improve sooner than later.