Flashback Friday: Years and years of storytelling
I started posting family stories to the web in 2002. I started blogging in 2004. I have years and years of storytelling. I go back into the long history of this site – all seven years of it (YIKES) and I realize I have such a depth of experiences, I should dig in deeper and reshare more. But what should I share? How should I share it?
I was thinking I might pull a few old links and give a little context. Maybe a little bit of a Flashback Friday in honor of the flashback theme on Instagram each Friday. I’ll start now… based on a bit of a flashback I stumbled into thanks to Memolane. It’s a cool website that connects to your years of social media and pulls out stories via email each day. This week it remembered five years ago when Jordan and I traveled to Houston to build her second myoelectric arm. I collected the full experience at this link with the last post at the top. (I’d recommend starting from the bottom of the posts and work your way up.)
The second time we went to build a second myoelectric was a very emotional experience. Jordan was highly aware of what was going on and she hated it. I had to bribe her with a ton of food, she was exhausted, I was exhausted. It was just a tough process. To make matters more challenging, the arm broke a few times that year. In the end, she spent more time yelling at the myoelectric arm than wearing it.
The experience pushed me to find more research on limb differences and find more experts in prosthetics. I learned about elbow transplants… and I’m still mystified by the idea. Learn about some interesting research I discovered in 2007.
What experiences are you going through as a parent? I might have a story I can share on another Friday. Maybe spending a little time looking into the past can help us all a little bit more in the future!
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Congrats to our THREE t-shirt winners: Claribel M., Brooke S. and Lisa M. There was such a big response, I just had to choose more than one winner. The next step? Go through the votes, pick the winning shirts and start making them. Don’t worry. I’ll get those details figured out soon and I’ll share them with everyone!
At 26 years of age, I STILL love to go back and look at old pictures and stories of how I did things (without thinking twice), so I can only imagine how you feel as a Mom and being able to watch Jordan grow. You do such a beautiful job with the blog.
I love this one in particular because I remember I HATED my myoelectric as well. In fact, I blogged about how much I hated it, but how much my Mom wanted me to learn to use it. I see a lot of myself in Jordan, but the main aspect is she seems very independent and outgoing!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi there, I totaly love your blog! Can you please explain what happend that you gave up on the myoelectric prosthesis? Has there ever been time where she would wear the prosthesis without any problems or has it always been a struggle? Thanks!!!Lida
Lida – we stopped using the myo because it angered Jordan and would not work effectively. Being an above elbow kid, it’s a lot harder to keep a useful motion site on her arm to keep it working well. Body-powered prosthetics have really been a fantastic option for Jordan. Every kid is different – but spending our time and money on hands and arms that meet Jordan’s specific goals (push ups, bike riding, soccer goal tending) have worked better for us.
My daughter has had a passive arm for about 6 months, she just had her 1st birthday a few weeks ago. My husband and I are at a crossroads when it comes to introducing it. She has a strong sense of feeling in her “nub” and uses her “little arm” ALL the time. But, when she is wearing her passive arm she doesn’t use it, its like it weighs her down. She has had physical therapy to strengthen the muscles in her shoulder and we have been given exercise ideas to do with the passive arm to help her utilize it when playing and standing. I think we are just taking it day by day! I am thankful for blogs like yours, they make our journey a little less scary and reassures us that we can do this!
Also, thanks so much for choosing me as a T-shirt winner! That’s awesome!
Congrats on the winning shirt, Brooke! Now I just have to find the right way to print it for you.
For wearing prosthetics, we have Jordan wear it a bit every day. Now that she’s older, it’s a part of her getting dressed each day. When she was little, our best luck in wearing was during occupational therapy sessions. It was focused work and it gave her body time to build bilateral strength.
my name is tyler persinger. i was born without the fingers on my left hand i have my thumb and im able to grab some smaller things with but i can honestlyb say it has been ablessing for me and i feel it has mad me a much better person then i would have otherwise have been i was rank in the state in wrestling and now i have two children and im a fireman i could have asked for more out of life god bless you and your child she will grow to love what makes her different and it will humble her and make her strong she will begin to see she can over come anything
Tyler, thanks so much for sharing your experience. A limb difference won’t hold you back unless you let it. Clearly you haven’t! Congrats on all of your success.