Give me a hand?

Hello,

I am an active retired Physical Education teacher. I have backpacked around the world, gotten caught in a tsunami while scuba diving in Thailand, and have guided my own raft down the Grand Canyon numerous times.

Yes, my life has been full of adventure, but all that changed in 2010, when I was remodeling my house and cut all four fingers off my left hand with a mitre saw. It was early in the morning, and I had one piece of chair rail molding left to cut. I had been cutting 20 ft baseboard the day before, so my saw was on the ground. I got ready to cut the 45-degree angle on a piece of molding but couldn’t see my mark. I placed my left hand down on the base of the saw and reached over to get my T-square to make my mark darker. My knee slid out from under me, and my right hand went to the highest thing to grab which was the handle of the saw. I not only grabbed it but pulled the trigger that started the saw. The blade went down and caught my hand and pulled it through amputating my four fingers. I quickly went into the house to call 911. While calling, I was looking out my back window and saw the fire station in the park. I threw the phone down and ran to the station. About halfway there I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Now, I was hopping on one leg the remaining 50 yards to the station where the EMS took over. Yep, that was a bad day!

I am an active soul, and I have been my entire life. I was an athlete in college and coached throughout my 30 years of teaching, so I was determined not let this hold me back. My wife and I love the seasons of Colorado. In the fall we love to hike and bike and go bow hunting with my buddies for elk and deer. In the winter, we are cross-country skiing and snowboarding down the mountains. When spring arrives, We take off camping. By the time summer hits, we are mountain biking, swimming, and working on home improvements. I still try it all but there are many challenges and barriers that are present now on a daily basis. Try holding on to a bike going down a rocky slope. I have done many a chest plant onto the stem of my handlebars while mountain biking. Even the simplest of things can take forever, like zipping my jacket, or cutting a piece of steak. I get it done, but man, it sure takes a lot of self-talk. It’s not all bad however, my wife is convinced I shouldn’t do the dishes because I’ve dropped and broken too many.

In my search to continue to do the activities I love; I was determined to create things to help me adapt to my daily life making it as normal as possible. When I first cut off my hand, the doctors sent me to a prosthetist. The hook they made me to help with my daily activities was useless. So, I began to create my own prosthetics. I bought gloves and started to adapt them to what I needed. I created a glove with Velcro for my golfing, mountain and road biking. I created a cuff that attached to my wrist to help me lift weights, and I created a paddle that fit onto my left hand for swimming. 

Even though what I created helped to normalize my day to day, I still have many challenges and the never-ending phantom pain. The pain is with me 24 hours and leaves me tired and drained at the end of the day. I find that I am not as patient as I used to be, and the smallest of tasks that I could do with very little effort can leave me very frustrated.

13 years ago, there was nothing out there to help me. But just recently, I was introduced to the Point Design Prosthetic. This was what I had been looking for 13 years! The way it allows you to pick up and hold things would not only be a game changer in my day-to-day activities but also allow me to participate in my many sporting activities that I have been challenged to participate in. The prosthetic is very expensive, $30,000 and insurance does not cover any of this cost. After talking to many different people with partial amputation, they have reported that the prosthetic helped relieve their pain. Because of this, I believe the pain I experience would be reduced by seeing fingers on my hand. The phantom pain I experience is huge. I get some relief using a mirror box where you put the amputated hand behind a mirror and look into the mirror at your good hand. The prosthetic would allow me to see fingers on my hand all day! All of this would be a game changer for me, at getting me back to a more normal life. Thank you in advance for any donation that you might find to give me towards a new Point-Digits prosthetic.

Peace,

Kirk Meier