GIMPY

SUMMER 2005

Suzanne Tandoc, Byron Morgenroth, and Scott Rome of California Pacific Medical Center and the Quilt! ______What’s Inside... The Stumps ‘R Us Quilt Raffle Winners! Turn the page Stumps R Us coffers are considerably fuller now thanks to the and find out!!!! extraordinary talent and generosity of long standing Stumps member Priscilla Busch. Priscilla designed, created and donated the exqui- site handmade quilt that was raffled off during the June 4th picnic. All 100 available tickets were promptly sold; Bryon Morgenroth of California Pacific Medical Center was holding the lucky ticket and is now the owner of this beautiful quilt.

The quilt pattern, called "Log Cabin", has a different patchwork design on each side and is made from rich fabrics in purple and blue tones. Priscilla not only incorporated the Stumps R Us logo into the quilt, but also patches with intricate and subtle designs of different type of prostheses. Every stitch of the hand quilting is perfect and a marvelous combination of Priscilla's creativity, dedication, craftsmanship and humor.

Priscilla was introduced to the art of quilt making in 1969 by Joyce Wilcox, the mother of her high school boyfriend. She was in awe of Mrs. Wilcox's ability to create something beautiful from scraps of fabric and decided, without any prior experience or training, to create one herself. That first quilt took her three years to complete; by the time she opened her own quilt shop in 1977, she and her partner could produce a handmade quilt in one month. In addition to Stumps R Us, Priscilla has donated over 12 quilts to various charitable organizations as fundraisers. Although the quilt shop is now closed, Priscilla can still be convinced to accept orders for custom quilts by contacting her at [email protected].

Priscilla and her husband Robert have been active members of Stumps R Us for over six years and often bring friends and family members with them to various events. She and Robert have two terrific children (, age 21 and Austin, age 24), two dogs, two cats and one tortoise. She and Robert enjoy traveling and always have great stories to share about their adventures.

Thanks Priscilla! Your quilt is wonderful, and so are you! …C.P. Julie Chandler

2 Running Against The Wind

A double-leg amputee and his high-tech prosthetics are blazing a trail into able-bodied sports. Will they be wel- comed? The jaw-dropping performance of a teenage sprinter from South Africa named is raising a question once barely imaginable: can a double-leg amputee run fast enough to qualify for the able-bodied Olympic Games? And if he did, would he be allowed to compete?

Oddly enough, the first question may be easier to answer: "I have no doubt that Oscar will eventually run fast enough to compete in an able-bodied world champi- onship," says U.S. sprinter Brian Frasure. "He could be ready to qualify for South Africa in time for the 2008 Olympics," Frasure adds, pointing out that Oscar, barely 18, is at least 10 years away from his physical peak. No one-perhaps not even Pistorius himself-is in a better position than Frasure to assess the young athlete's potential and just how far he might go. It was Frasure's world record that Pistorius shattered in the 200-meter dash at the Paralympics last September, becom- ing the first leg amputee (congenital or otherwise) to run the distance in less than 22 seconds. What is more, it was Frasure, a 34-year-old clinical prosthetist, who fitted and helped design the high-tech carbon-fiber "feet"-as athletes call their artificial running legs-that Pistorius wore while streaking past him on the track. "I should have waited until this year to make them," Frasure, who has since retired from competition, says with a rueful smile.

Pistorius, born with a congenital disorder that left him without feet, has been competing for little more than a year. "I went from a time of 24.8 seconds in March 2004 to 21.97 at Athens," he says, an improvement that Frasure described as "unheard of." The able-bodied world record for 200 meters is 19.32 seconds, and the bottom-bracket qualifying time for a sprinter going to the Olympics would be 20.75 seconds, just 1.22 seconds more than Pistorius's Athens time. "I can go a lot further-my times should get a lot better," Pistorius said in Athens.

A BARRIER BROKEN: South Africa's Oscar Pistorius set a new world record during a men's 200- meter race at the Athens 2004 on 21 September 2004. True to his word, in February Pistorius shaved more than a tenth of a second off his newly minted record. Equipped with new and improved prosthetics, he was expecting to run even faster in mid- May at the inaugural Paralympics World Cup in Manchester, England, where he will also compete in the 100-meter dash [for results of that event, see http://www.paralympic.org].

In both events he will come up against U.S. Paralympic superstar Marlon Shirley, the only athlete in disabled sports to have a dollar income from corporate sponsorships that's counted in six fig- ures and the only leg amputee ever to run the 100-yard dash in less than 11 seconds. Shirley admires Pistorius but does not think they should be running in the same race, even if technically they are competing in different disability categories. "The length of his legs"-and the fact that they 3 can be adjusted, adding distance to his strides-"gives Oscar an extreme advantage biomechani- cally over the other [single amputee] athletes in the field," Shirley comments. As a single-leg amputee, Shirley cannot augment his height. It may seem paradoxical that a double amputee could have an advantage over an athlete with at least one fully functional limb. Advances in materials technology have greatly enhanced perform- ance levels in disabled sports. The current generation of L-shaped running prostheses are made of carbon-fiber composites-first used in the aerospace industry-which combine great strength and variable stiffness with relatively low mass. Attached to a silicon-lined socket fitted over the residual limb, these "feet" are also extremely efficient springs, returning nearly all of the energy stored when the runner's weight pushes them against the ground. Yet Frasure points out that a prosthetic foot is far less powerful than a natural limb. The prosthetic returns about 95 percent of the energy put into it when "loaded," whereas the muscles in a human leg will return more than 200 percent, he explains. Biomechanical engineers agree, but if you add the adjustable-height factor, suddenly the calculation becomes more complicated. Which is why, if and when Pistorius qualifies one day for a top-level event, some able-bodied ath- letes and organizers may object. "There is no existing ruling on this question, either forbidding or allowing it," says Istvan Gyulai, general secretary of the Monaco-based International Association of Athletics Federations, which establishes qualifying criteria. Even money says Pistorius is going to rewrite the rules. -MARLOWE HOOD PHOTO: ALEXANDROS VLACHOS/EPA/LANDOV

Another Stump The Prosthetist answer from Julie Chandler & Wayne Koniuk.

Note: These questions and anwers (and more!) can be found on the www.stumps.org website ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kimberly Peterson in Oakdale, MN...Prosthesis can be made without liners, silicone or otherwise. Although most people are not allergic to silicone, it sounds like you may be. Does your liner have a locking mechanism attached to it? If so, maybe you need to try a different brand of liner. Or, maybe discuss the possibility of a pelite liner or no liner (this is called a hard socket desgn) or a custom made silicone liner with your prosthetist. There are definitely alternatives to the kind of itching you're describing and no reason why you should just grin and bear it.

Many of our patients really like the Renegade Foot, made by Freedom Innovations.. It is designed for active amputees, and seems to be minimal failure with them. It sounds like something you might want to try. (This is the same foot Chad Crittenden of Survivor used) The manufacturer offers a free 30 day trial, so there's nothing to lose by giving it a "run".

Have you worn your heel height adjustable foot while hiking? We have patients who adjust the angle of the foot to make it easier to walk up/down inclines. You might want to try this and see if its beneficial or not.

Good luck! Julie Chandler

4 Prometheus -A Support Fellowship Made from Sand and Blood

My tale is one full of such sarcastic irony (and strange punctuation) that even Ernest Hemingway might appreciate it as a real-life answer the The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

I was 16 when I noticed a blister on the bottom of my foot. I am not diabetic and had no reason to fear such maladies, so without much parental supervision or care I went on about the business of being a teenager: dating, fretting about pimples, and working part time on weekends. About a year later I found myself in the hospital getting a summer's worth of intravenious antibiotics for an infection that had wound its way into my bone. I spent the next two summers in the same way…not exactly a break to write about, but a period I have spoken of much more often than any other period in my life. The summer I turned 20 the infection was back again. I received the dreaded ultimatum: scraping the bone, or amputation. I chose the amputation to get back to col- lege, parties, and working.

The next 12 years went by relatively normally…Sorority initiation, college graduation, engage- ment, marriage, children (one…two…three). My second "permanent" prosthesis lasted me a blissful, uneventful ten years! My husband, an engineer, suggested I get a replacement before all components wore out. After a year of dreading and avoiding it, I finally went in to a local (Toledo, Ohio) o and p shop to get an "upgrade." Life went somewhat downhill from there. The fit was ter- rible, but complaints to the prosthetist netted me watching him twiddle with screws and shrug. I spent two stints in the hospital with hematomas and antibiotics and was told I just needed to take it easy. A simple slip on the ice in this thing left me with a broken tibia and eight weeks on crutch- es! Still, I figured I was sentenced to live with this bad prosthesis. (Especially since it had cost thousands of out-of-pocket dollars!) And for 20 months I did…on and off crutches, but still deter- mined to make this thing work.

We moved to California last summer, and wouldn't you know a simple stumble on the sand in Santa Cruz was the proverbial straw that broke my leg. Or rather more precisely caused a cyst on my bone that swelled until the stump burst. My primary care physician didn't know what to do with me, so she gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics, and instructed me to stay off the prosthe- sis until the stump healed. I did, and it did. Over and over. Every time I put the prosthesis back on and walked, I'd find myself back at home with a socket full of blood and fluid! In the meantime, my pcp insisted my real problem was in not having wanted to relocate to the San Joaquin Valley! It took me 4 months to find a Fresno physician to help me, having fought a primary care physician (and the surgeon to whom she referred me) who didn't have any idea how to handle amputee issues. I have now had revision surgery (and have a significantly shorter tibia now!) and my new Harmony prosthesis. California looks a lot more beautiful to me these days! Once my tears of anger and frustration passed, I decided to use that emotion to help other amputees in a positive way. Such was the birth of Prometheus, a fun, positive fellowship of amputees and the ones they care about. So far, we've been bowling, had a day of free hairdos and massages, and had a workshop with a prosthetist and physical therapist on the topic of environmental barriers (ramps, stairs, rugs, curbs). Upcoming events include an old-fashioned picnic, archery, snowboarding, theatre tickets, self defense, painting class, and more! Most events are donated by a host and are either free or practically free.

From Prometheus sprang Atlas, a positive, fun support system for the caregivers of amputees.

Thank you so much for your support group, which helped me get through the toughest times by just knowing you were out there! Sincerely, Kimberly ([email protected])

5 More Stump The Prosthetist Questions and Answers. tj bivens in Texas...Texas has no Medicaid O&P coverage for amputees between ages 18 to 65 years old.Texas is our biggest draw of funds.

The Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance Fund was established in 1995 through grants from the Barr Foundation. The mission of the fund is to provide assistance to amputees that cannot afford limbs, have no other financial resources, and to promote quality prosthetic care for all amputees. This is accomplished directly by providing reimbursement for materials and maintenance costs to prosthetist that provide limbs to amputees who have no other source of funding. This program is a cooperative effort between the Fund and the amputee's prosthetist to improve the quality of life of the amputee. Benefactor sponsorships maybe also made available to those amputees whom have individuals, churches or business organizations to make tax deductible donations to the Barr Foundation whose funds can be specifically utilized for a select applicant. In order for the amputee to receive an application, they must contact a board certified or state licensed prosthetist that may be willing to sponsor them.

See: http://www.abcop.org for a directory of American Board Certiified practitioners in your state. The prosthetist ,considering sponsorship, must request the application directly from us by call 561-394-6514.

It is suggested that the amputee be evaluated by the prosthetist that may be sponsoring him/her, prior to them requesting an application in the amputee's name. Please provide the prosthetist with the amputee's name, address, date and level of amputation and telephone number.

At this time bilateral amputees are not being processed for funding unless another source of funding from an individual(s) or organization(s) is participating to share equally in the reimburse- ment level as outlined in the application.

The Applicant will be reviewed and interviewed for the screening process by one or more mem- bers of the review committee upon submission of the application, which is to be completed by both amputee and prosthetist. The applicants will be considered based on need, first time for prosthetic rehabilitation, age and general health conditions. Sponsoring prosthetist must accept our reimbursement levels as payment in full and provide a six (6) month warranty for adjustments and components used. First time amputees will be required to receive gait training as a condition of the approval by the sponsor, physical therapist or other qualified personnel at no cost to the applicant.

The application must be completed within 30 days and returned to us with a $25.00 nonrefund- able application fee. We will then have 4-6 weeks to process the application and the prosthetist will be notified as to approval or denial. If the application is not received within the 30 day period of sending the application it will be cancelled and the prosthetist considering sponsorship will have to resubmit. We will request that proof of denial of any other funding resources be provided at the time the application is submitted.

Most likely the patient can qualify for Medicare/Medicaid funding.The prosthetist can help you determine that. Thank you for your interest, if there is anything else we can do, please e-mail or give us a call at 561-394-6514

Sincerely, Anthony T. Barr - Barr Foundation www.oandp.com/barr www.ertlreconstruction.coms 6 Where is the new Amputee Rehab Center?

In November 2004, the Internet was ablaze with stories about the soon-to-be built Amputee Rehab Center at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)in Washinton D.C. I have searched in vain for any news of this new rehab center, and only found this interview, address here: http://www.larouchepub.com/other/interviews/2005/3226john_pierce_m.d..html Although there will most likely NOT be a multi-million dollar amp rehab center built there, and in fact the WRAMC may be closing, they do have a state of the art amputee rehab program there now, and I would like to believe that this program will be moved to another location if in fact the hospital does close. I suggest writing your Congress person to ensure this amp rehab program is not scrapped along with the WRAMC.

Your editor at play....

James Prial at Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson about to take his new Road King for the first ride!

7 Stumps 'R Us Members Photo Exhibition

The Robert Mondavi Winery, 7801 St. Helena Highway (Rt. 29 Napa Valley), Oakville, CA is spon- soring a photographic exhibition entitled: "Within Walking Distance" exhibiting 40 plus Color and Black & White Photographic images by SRU members Bruce & Dawn Cathcart. The exhibit opens Sunday Oct 16th, 3:PM to 5:PM, with a Wine and Cheese Reception. Please let Dan Sorkin know if you will be attending, Dan will RSVP for Stumps 'R Us. Images range in finished size from 16 X 20 to 36 X 48 inches and can be purchased.

To get there, take 80 East to 37 West to 29 North, or take 101 North to 37 East to 121 North, to 29 North. Or visit Mapquest.com for more detailed directions direct from your zip code!

Bruce and Dawn A Photo called "Twin Lakes"

Please send any stories, photos, or ideas for publication to:

James Prial 1300 Irving St. #5 San Francisco CA 94122 or email to [email protected]

Remember, you are a much better writer than you thought you were!

Download a color version of this issue at www.stumps.org

***************************************************** 8 Speaking of ideas for articles, how about some photos and stories about your favorite hob- bies/pastimes? See photo and caption below for a glimpse of one our Chief Stump’s favorite liesure activities...

From left to right Dan Sorkin, Carol Hollmann (lost her right hand in a wood chipper) and her friend John. Not in the picture was photographer Jody Sorkin who briefed the pair on a Stumps 'R Us Flight to Monterey. Carol learned the aviation art of GPS Navigation during a flight to the Monterey Peninsula, sitting in the right front seat next to Pilot Dan Sorkin, fly- ing at 7000 feet. Next week Double above the knee Angela Briguglio begins flight instruc- tion in a 4 passenger Cessna 182 Turbo Charged Retractable aircraft. A modest grant from the Wolf Foundation made these flights possible.

9 GIMPY

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This edition of GIMPY was printed and bound by California Pacific Regional Rehabilitation Center

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