Therapy, therapy therapy

Suzanne had another hand operation on Friday, October 22nd. This time on her left hand and wrist, in an effort to increase the mobility on that side. The previous surgery went well and her recovery, on both hands, was amplified through frequent visits to the hand therapist. It appears, with this most recent surgery, that she is finished with operations for a while. It will be a welcome break.

Sue received her second set of prosthetic legs on October 29th. The first set grew increasingly uncomfortable and a new pair was necessary. The process of trial sockets took a few months of adjustments and re-fitting. After forming a clear plastic test socket, the prosthetist was able to see where the pressure points, peaks and valleys along the surface of the leg were located. By manipulating the shape of this socket, he was able to maximize comfort for Suzanne. When the new set was completed, they were coated with an anatomically correct foam layer, to present a natural looking leg, while wearing dresses or capri pants. She has been wearing the new set of legs for about a week and is happy to have the increased comfort. Though that is a relative statement.

Limbless Man Swims Across English Channel

Headline story can be found here & here. A remarkable feat for anyone to do. It's just plain incredible. This is his private website. For the animal lovers, here's an older animal amputee story that recently crossed my desk; a survival story from Hurricane Katrina. Also, you may recall Monica (Sprague) Jorge was on Oprah with Jenny McCarthy two years ago. Oprah had her back, this time with Nate Berkus, and surprised the Jorge family with a new house. They filmed a "Day in the life" video with Monica, before surprising her with the good news. Monica fell ill only weeks before Suzanne, and lost most of her arms and legs. Suzanne was fortunate to have kept her hands through her series of surgeries; and we credit the all of the medical professionals who treated her for months on end.

Speaking of Suzanne's hands, she will be heading back to the hand surgeon on Monday to have her cast removed from last week's surgery. Everything seems to be progressing well with that. But there are probably one or two more hand surgeries to go. Sue's legs are doing better as well. Her new prosthetist in Annapolis is working with her to mould new sockets for her legs. It is a trial and error adjustment phase which will take some time to get the best fit. Until then, the old legs are still holding her up, albeit rather uncomfortably.

Hand Surgery

Yesterday, Suzanne, had a follow-up surgery on her right wrist and hand. If you recall, back in January, she had an operation to increase mobility on her thumb(and index finger) as it had been seized preventing her from grasping anything with what was her dominant hand. The tissue transfer from her upper arm to her hand took well and it was finally time to clean it up. Dr. Higgins performed the operation again. He was able to remove some of scar tissue from the earliest operations in 2007. But the main purpose was to remove a lot of the bulk associated with the transferred tissue. It appears, for now, that she is done with hand operations for the foreseeable future. Being a “minor” surgery, relative to what she has already seen, she was able to return home after only a few hours in recovery. She is doing well.

Here is another remarkable amputee in the news:
Things are picking up for the bionic boy

Move and News

The family has completed the move out of the townhouse into a nice colonial in Annapolis. It will be far easier for Suzanne to get around with the laundry, bath, kitchen and living areas all on the same floor. With the hard surface floors, it will also be easier for her to wheel around when wearing the legs is just unbearable. Other than that, it has been a slow news cycle. Here are some other amputee news articles, found online:

TSA nightmare for amputee.

The blog referred to in the article.

Another Birth leading to amputation story.

Tragic boat accident affects a friend of one of our friends in Florida.

Interesting photo of prosthetic limbs being made.

Victim of London train bombings readies for paralympics

And here's a cat with prosthetic hind legs.

Wounded Warriors

This weekend, Annapolis, hosted the Wounded Warrior Ride. Photos of the event can be found here.

Building Limbs and Lives

When the ground shook in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, the magnitude-7 earthquake left behind an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 instant amputees in a land where there's little mercy for disability. MSNBC report: The nuts and bolts of building a limb, can be found here.

Wounded warriors: Service members learn to live as amputees. Nearly 1,000 U.S. service members have undergone amputations in the eight years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among their post-battlefield challenges is adjusting to civilian life with a prosthetic. Find this Washington Post story here.

These numbers on their own seem large. But according to the Amputee Coalition of America, in the United States alone, there are approximately 1.7 million people living with limb loss. It is estimated that one out of every 200 people in the U.S. has had an amputation. Details about these facts can be found here.

Regarding Suzanne's progress, she will be undergoing another revision surgery on her right leg next Tuesday the 30th. According to her surgeon's report from last week, she will be in the hospital overnight and is expected to have one more after this, to finally complete the leg revisions.

Off-Road Wheelchair and Battery Charging Prosthetics

MIT student, Amos Winter, is trying to revolutionize the wheelchair. Specifically, he wants to make the most familiar aid to the disabled work in the Third World, where roads are bad, money tight, and the need immense. Check out this article in the Boston Globe, which describes his work, and how he's putting leverage to work. The concept is relatively simple, like all of the greatest ideas. A little more high-concept is the prosthetic foot, which uses the kinetic energy of motion to generate electricity. Found here in the Inhabitat online magazine, the article shows the other extreme of mobility advancements. Both articles are worth visiting if you have a few minutes to spare.

Hot Coffee, Is Justice Being Served?

You may have heard that Suzanne is going to be featured in a film about “Tort Reform” which focuses on the public’s perception of frivolous lawsuits, following the McDonald’s coffee case. After learning the facts and seeing the photos, rather than just believing what the news media reported, your perception will be changed, as ours was. Stella Liebeck, a passenger in a parked car, spilled coffee in her lap when removing the lid to add cream. During the case, Liebeck's attorneys discovered that McDonald's REQUIRED franchises to serve coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At that temperature, the coffee causes a third-degree burn in two seconds. Her case became a punchline, and was even the subject of an episode of Seinfeld. Have a look at the blog posting, featuring Suzanne, and check out “Hot Coffee, Is Justice Being Served?”

Handy Work

We wanted to post some pictures from Suzanne's hand surgery experience. To the left is a picture of Suzanne with Dr. Jesse Goldstein, right before going into surgery, Sunday, January 17th. Interestingly enough, Dr. Goldstein was doing his rotation at Washington Hospital Center while Suzanne was an inpatient, and he participated in several of her original leg surgeries. We were surprised to see him at the hand center when we went up to Baltimore to see Dr. Higgins.

As it turns out, he is currently doing a rotation at the Curtis National Hand Center as part of his plastic surgery training and was able to participate in Suzanne's hand surgery as well. How is that for continuity of care? The photo to the right was taken around 6:30AM as Dr. James Higgins was removing Suzanne's temporary cast, in preparation for her return home. Sue was happy to get out of the hospital and out from under the hot air blanket and into her own bed.

To the left, there is a photo of Suzanne, with Gabby, upon her return home. Notice the large bandage surrounding her right arm. It remained immobilized for a week, until her follow-up visit. And finally, we have a picture of Suzanne with Dr. Higgins and Dr. Goldstein, one week after surgery. The doctors were pleased with how her hand looked. They removed the plaster cast and replaced with with a less cumbersome plastic splint. She'll go back in two more weeks to have the pins removed from her thumb.

Suzanne is so grateful to the doctors and nurses who participated in her surgery, early on a Sunday morning. Sue sends a big thanks to everyone at Union Memorial Hospital, especially Dr. Higgins.

Bionics in the News

Two well known magazines recently featured bionic advancements in their pages. The January 2010 edition of National Geographic and the February 2010 edition of Fast Company. Follow the links to see what they have to say. Very interesting indeed.

Hand Surgery

On Sunday, Suzanne had the operation on her right hand, as described in the December 7th post. The operation took seven hours and was largely performed under a microscope, because nerves and blood vessels needed to be moved. She recovered in the ICU for Sunday and Monday, but was moved to a regular nursing floor on Tuesday afternoon, where she will stay until released on Friday. She has a room to herself because the temperature must remain high to keep her blood vessels dilated, to ensure the newly attached vessels do not clot. In addition to that, her right arm is under a hot-air blower blanket. The net result of this means she is uncomfortably hot and drenched with sweat. However, the surgeon insists that the heat remain until she leaves the hospital to maximize the blood flow to the hand and migrated tissue.

Stents and Stones

Throwing a kink into the planned operation, Suzanne had a kidney stone reveal itself right before Christmas. The choice to have it removed immediately meant that she would have it out before the trip to Massachusetts but side effects would linger into the planned hand surgery timeline. It will now take place on the 17th and today the ureteral stent was removed, which was in place to ensure the flow through the affected ureter. The new date doesn't impact any leg operations, as none are currently scheduled. Other than that, Happy New Year, to our readers. We hope to soon report the last operation some time in the coming months.