I Have an Upper Limb Difference and I Don’t Use a Prosthesis. Is That Why My Back/Shoulder/Wrist Hurts?

Notice how Wendi’s prosthesis is shorter than her sound arm? Since she was used to working with a shortened left arm, she wanted to keep it that length but allow herself to gain more function with a terminal device. She was initially worried that a prosthetic provider wouldn’t listen to her thoughts about what would work best for her — that’s part of why she delayed exploring prosthetic options. It’s also one of the things that makes Arm Dynamics centers different: while we may be prosthetic experts, the only expert when it comes to your body is you. Wendi thought that a shortened prosthesis would work best for her situation, and we supported her in that decision.

Sometimes pain-free function can be born from curiosity. Our patient Karen, who was born with an upper limb difference, used a prosthesis when she was a child (not provided by us), but didn’t find it helpful enough to continue with. Later, her then-boyfriend, now-husband, showed her a webpage featuring a multi-articulating myoelectric hand. After a long journey and a lot of insurance ins and outs, Karen obtained an i-Limb Quantum hand and a wrist rotator for her prosthesis. She incorporated it into her daily activities and found that she experienced less pain in different areas of her body when she used it. “I have always been able to figure out how to get things done without my prosthesis. But the continued wear and tear on the body from years of not using one was getting to be a problem. Once I had a device and was using my body more symmetrically, my back pain significantly diminished. My wrist pain significantly diminished. I stopped waking up in the morning with numb fingers. It’s not about being unable to do things and then, all of a sudden, being able to do them — it’s doing stuff better.” While the prosthesis that Karen used twenty years ago was less than helpful, upper limb prosthetic options and functionality have advanced significantly.

When our patient Autumn, pictured below, was born without a left hand, her parents wanted to know, as her mom Sarah said, “What tools she could have in her toolbox.” When our team interviewed Autumn in 2023 at the age of eight, she was using a single-motor myoelectric hand and an activity-specific prosthesis with two attachments, a “shroom tumbler” and a “swinger.” Sarah, again: “We’ve learned the importance of prosthetics for specifically upper arm is so that Autumn doesn’t overuse the muscles in her shoulder — we want her to continue to be healthy and have balanced muscle control.”