Progress is not linear. You don’t move toward your goals at a fixed rate each day. Some days you stall out. Some days you leap forward, only to take a step back for every two steps forward. There can be other factors that keep your goals stubbornly out of reach difficulties with an insurance provider, workers’ comp or trouble finding a job that will be the right fit for your amputation. Rather than look at progress day by day, try reflecting at the end of the week or the end of the month: What can I do today that I wasn’t able to do a week or a month ago?

But progress can be difficult to achieve on your own. Two factors can greatly enhance your advancement: support and motivation.

Support can come in many forms. One of them is your prosthetic care team. Each member of the Arm Dynamics team has experience in providing whatever support their patient needs, including goal setting and suggestions regarding mental health services. A comfortable, well-fitting, functional prosthesis, combined with training by an occupational therapist, can go a long way to helping people see what good things their future holds.

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Family and friends can also provide support, and it works better when they plan to take turns with offering help. We have several articles for family and friends of people who’ve had a traumatic amputation, and two articles featuring interviews with wives of amputees: Deb and Jenny.

The motivation can be a little harder to come by partially because motivation often comes from feeling joy, and joy can be in short supply in the weeks, months and years following an amputation. One of the best motivators is watching or meeting someone with an amputation who is further along in their journey than you. Our patient Chris had that experience. In April of 2024, the marketing team asked Chris, who became an amputee in May of 2022, to come to our Kansas City, KS, center for a photo shoot. We also asked our patient Gerry, who became a bilateral amputee in 2015, to join us for the photo shoot (Chris and Gerry are pictured in the image at the top of this article). Chris later texted our team to tell us about meeting Gerry:

"I had a great experience on Friday. I thought the photo shoot went well and I truly enjoyed visiting with Gerry and his wife. He was very motivating for me! I feel that I have hit a wall with developing my prosthetic skills. Gerry amazed the daylights out of me. Watching him utilize his prostheses showed me that I have more to accomplish. He also reminded me that he has eight years of practice, and he was once where I am today. Honestly, talking with Gerry was my favorite part of the trip."

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Talking with a fellow amputee face to face can be inspiring, and there are also videos you can watch that feature amputee stories. When our patient Abram was at the beginning of his amputee journey and feeling low, he watched a documentary about our patient Eduardo Garcia. Abram’s wife, Susan, remembers: “When that show clicked off, he was like, ‘That’s it. I’m not letting this stop me. I’m not letting it get me down.’” Eduardo was an inspiration to Abram, and now Abram is passing on that inspiration by starting his own foundation to offer emotional support to other amputees.

Additionally, our Arm Dynamics centers offer peer support. Many of our patients are available to call, video chat or meet in person with new patients to offer their support, share their experiences and just chat about being an amputee. Below you’ll see our patients Steve (left) and Brian. Steve was the newbie at this meeting, and he had a lot of questions regarding his TASKA hand that only Brian was able to answer.

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Each of our prosthetists and occupational therapists are upper limb specialists and experts in the world of upper limb prostheses. But they don’t know what it’s like to wear a device day after day. That’s why we’re so grateful to have willing, experienced patients step in and support their fellow amputees, wherever they are in their journey.

To read more about this topic, please see our articles, How to Move Forward After an Amputation and Life After an Amputation. You can also find inspiration via the patients featured in our article, Twelve People with a Limb Difference to Follow on Instagram.

If you or someone you know would like to be connected with our clinical team to learn more about our holistic prosthetic care or our peer support network, please contact us. If you have a comment on this article, or something to share with us or one of the patients mentioned above, please leave it below.

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