The May 8Th Meeting Was Held at La Hacienda Ranch in North Dallas. Ellen Fernandes Greeted

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Volume 12 Issue 5 May 2017

The May 8th meeting was held at La Hacienda Ranch www.dallasamputeenetwork.org in North Dallas. Ellen Fernandes greeted everyone (972) 470-0505 and made name badges. After dinner, MC Randy *********************************************************************** Mecca opened the meeting and gave a special The next DAN meeting is Monday, June 12th from welcome to first-time amputees Alex DuLaney, 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Spring Creek BBQ in Richardson, Roscoe Cox and Nora Moreno. We were also very 270 N. Central Expressway, on the east service road happy to see Kathy Williams back with us after between Belt Line and Arapaho. Tommy Donahue moving to McKinney last year. She has been a DAN will be talking about his big annual fundraising event member and meeting greeter for a very long time! for DAN, Legapalooza, held Sunday, June 4 at Milo Butterfingers. Tommy Donahue brought Legapalooza shirts to sell, and told us how the plans are shaping up for the big On April 25 and 26, the Amputee Coalition hosted event on Sunday, June 4th at Milo Butterfinger’s at Hill Day as part of Limb Loss Awareness Month. 5645 SMU Blvd (formerly Yale). If you want to help With more than 80 attendees and nearly 100 Tommy with auction items and raffle prizes, call him meetings with legislators and staff, the event was at (214) 641-6833. We are eternally grateful to empowering and powerful. Our own Linda Walls Tommy for working so hard to fund our group with this was there to represent not only DAN members, fun-filled extravaganza! We love that guy! but also all amputees. She showed us a The Adaptive Training Foundation is an organization PowerPoint presentation of what transpired that Prosthetics Director Don Cummings is familiar during the event. with: "David Vobora who runs it is an exceptional Attendees met with members of the legislature to person and they do a good job. It is really geared at encourage support of and introduction of the intense training and motivation to reach a patient's Insurance Fairness for Amputees Act, support for specific functional goals. We have a couple of our amputee patients who have trained with them." a moratorium on the Medicare LCD to ensure the coverage changes are not enacted, and to This a gym/program located in Dallas that specializes support a more open, transparent and fair in training amputees and also developing elite process for Medicare LCDs in the future. athletes who have a physical disability. It was started by a former NFL player who took an interest in PALS (Prosthetic And Limb-deficient Support training a quadruple amputee veteran. There is no Group for children) will hold their annual family cost, and there is an online application. picnic on Saturday, June 3, at 5:00 p.m. at the TX Three of our DAN members recently attended their Scottish Rite Hospital playground. The address is training camp: Jennifer Brigham, Craig Till and Joey 2222 Welborn in Dallas. BBQ, beans, potato Wattigney. They will tell the group about it at the July salad, drinks and cookies will be provided. Feel DAN meeting. free to bring chips, salad, fruit or dessert. For http://adaptivetrainingfoundation.org/who-we-are/ more info call Brenda Staples at (817) 907-0241. David Boomstein has started a new company Scott Higginbotham has created a new water leg for “Your Best Foot Forward 3D Photography” and amputees and demonstrated how it is constructed offered free portrait sittings at the meeting. For and how it works. He had a video as well. For more more info call him at (972) 567-6245. information about the leg call him at (972) 757-9026 or go to [email protected]. Important Resources: Limbs For Life 1-888-235-5462 Ronald Barnes reminded us of the third Saturday REACH of Plano (972) 398-1111 meetings at Milo’s; this time it is May 20 from 12-5. REACH of Dallas (214) 630-4796 Rise Adventures (469) 762-5075 Adele Woodard brought 10 door prizes to help Turning Point (972) 524-4231 celebrate this special occasion. Linda Walls made TX Workforce Solutions Plano- Dianne Conroy at sure everyone entered the drawing, and during the (214) 365-2826 or Dallas/Mesquite- meeting at various time, numbers were called and Steve Mabry at (214) 467-5534 prizes given out. Thanks, Adele! PROGRAM: This meeting commemorated the 15th anniversary of Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research hosted the the support group’s beginning in May of 2002. Ellen meeting and presented the program. They very was completely surprised to receive a bouquet of generously paid for the buffet of delicious Mexican tulips from Mike Dimas and a variety of gifts collected food served in Papa’s Room, one of our favorite by Adele Woodard. From members who were at the places to meet. Scott Sabolich came from the main Milo’s social on Saturday and from people at the facility in Oklahoma City to talk about how his meeting at La Hacienda, she was given an immense grandfather started the company,-- he is a third card with messages of love and appreciation, a $400 generation prosthetist with a very successful second gift card, a bottle of wine, and a bath set from Bath & location in North Dallas, which opened about 5 years Body Works. Many thanks to Adele and all the ago. We really appreciate his continued sponsorship DAN members who so generously donated to of our amputee support group! these gifts for Ellen! Here is one of his documents: “The Perfect Fit” On Sunday May 21st, DiscGames participated in the second Frisbee Fest at Five Star Park in The Colony. Nothing is perfect, but as amputees, we need the fit of The Dallas Roughnecks Ultimate Frisbee Team our prosthetic arm or leg to be as perfect as possible. hosted the event sponsored by Lone Star beer and There are several things that are critical to consider— our very own Randy Mecca sang the national you should expect to be able to wear your prosthesis anthem to kick it off. In addition to hanging out with all day without discomfort or sores. Roughnecks mascot "Rigs”, we had a disc golf challenge during halftime which about 30 people First of all, your residual limb should be in good participated in. The Roughnecks donated $200 to condition (No excessive tissue, minimal scar tissue) DiscGames and we look forward to working together and your skin should be in good condition. A good in the future. surgical result will make sure there are no bones showing and the limb is cushioned with muscle tissue. Also if you're looking for something to do this Sometimes revision surgery is necessary for the Memorial Weekend come out to Lone Star Park in prosthesis to be used effectively. Grand Prairie for "a day at the races "on Saturday and hear Randy sing the national anthem at 5:00. Next, your physical therapy should be the best available, with an experienced physical therapist For more information contact Randy at: working with you. Questions to ask are: [email protected] or 214-533-1983 . Are you learning to walk stronger? o Turning Point will be celebrating their 27th o Are you controlling your diet and Extravaganza 'Celebration of Choices' on watching your health? Saturday, June 3, at Bachman Lake Recreation Center. The festivities begin at 9am and continue Last, you should look for the perfect prosthetist by until 3pm. There will be over 20 different activities to noting these qualities: try, including: water skiing, jet skiing, archery, air o Does your prosthetist listen to you? rifles, catfish tank, mini horses, handcycling, pontoon o Do you get along with your boat rides, sailing, fish tank, etc.... Also there will be prosthetist? booths with the latest wheelchairs and medical equipment. This is a free event. o Have they completed hundreds of cases similar to yours? o Do they make prosthetic limbs with Thanks to our Sponsors: their own two hands? Tommy Donahue’s Legapalooza Benefit Strobel & Associates Prosthetics, Inc. If you can answer yes to most of these questions, Plano (972) 516-9538 consider yourself lucky to have found a good Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, Inc. prosthetist. Again, nothing is perfect, but all amputees Dallas, Garland, Plano (972) 226-6496 deserve the best possible chances for success in Lift-Aids, Inc. Euless (817) 835-0035 order to get on with their lives. M-Power Prosthetics and Orthotics Dallas (214) 265- 5060 Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research 2 Dallas, Oklahoma City (214) 382-9270 Advanced Prosthetics Research, Inc. Plano (469) 241-1477 Excell Orthotics & Prosthetics Denton (940) 243-4198 Innovative Prosthetics Southlake (817) 251-2220