Pretending
by Tom - 8 December 2008
It is not possible to pretend being an LBE amputee. The amputation I would like to have is through the wrist. Of course, this is not possible to simulate. The closest I can get to it is by making my hand as useless as possible and with as little sensitivity as possible. I have tried many methods to achieve this, and finally settled for a compromise. It involves closing my fist, thumb inside, and bandaging the whole thing quite tightly. The bandage must also go a little up the wrist so that there can be no wrist movement. Then I cover the whole thing with a "stump" sock. However, this still looks more or less like a closed fist. I found this could be made less obvious by letting a couple of finger "stumps" point out at the end of it. So I let my little finger and my major finger point out, but bent and bandaged so that they look like two short finger stumps. When asked, I tell people that I have an underdeveloped, malformed hand and that I have to wear a glove to protect it due to the fact that there isn’t any sensitivity in it.
Pretending continues »