Amputee Coalition: Day 1

I’d love to write huge details about our first day of the conference, but I was so exhausted last night! Now Jordan’s begging to play so I’ll do a short summary now and write more later.

First, taking a five year old to a conference is challenging! Thank goodness technology (and $4 of new iPad apps) kept her attention.

Second, I love hanging out in an environment where there are questions like: “By looking at her arm, she’s congenital, right?” Most adults wear upper limb prosthetics. I know that interested Jordan since she wears hers mainly when she needs it, not all the time.

It was interesting to learn about the current state of upper limb prosthetics: there’s money being spent, but no one has really found the ultimate answer. U learned the coveted iLimb hand has a loose grip and breaks easily… And actually most “hands” on adult myoelectric prosthetics do not have a strong grip. There’s a new hand coming out that claims to have two grip settings with a realistic looking hand. But I guess we’ll wait and see. The DARPA Luke project (where Dean Kamen was helping invent a new upper limb prosthetic) looks like it may end soon. The government money is running out and the folks working in the project hope to commercialize it. The one research element that really caught my attention was how the Luke arm researchers learned how creating extra pressure on the existing limb allows the arm to tolerate more weight with a prosthetic. I have more notes and I promise I’ll write more.

Jordan was a trooper. In between paying attention to the presentations, she colored and played on the iPad. Thank goodness for technology!