Whether you have experienced an amputation as a result of injury or illness, there is no doubt you understand the impact amputation can have upon your mobility and general physical and emotional health. For those who suffer from multiple amputations, especially involving an upper limb, the complications of amputation are compounded significantly.

As a multiple amputee, it is important to understand the dynamics and health complications you will experience as you begin to recover from your amputation surgery. Should your rehabilitation plan be funded by private insurance, or provided through VA services attributed to a wartime injury, it is important that you are educated in the anticipated rehabilitation needed to ensure you have every opportunity to restore as much mobility in your life as possible.

One of the most significant complications of multiple amputees involves the implication of, at least, one upper limb. Without both upper limbs, you will need to learn techniques for managing your daily living needs, including prosthesis use, with one upper limb managing most of the physical work.

As an amputee who has suffered both upper and lower limb amputation, it is important to know what your options are in terms of occupational rehabilitation and prosthesis use. Often, the rehabilitation team will begin to prepare you for upper limb prosthesis use. However, many amputees opt to forego upper limb prosthesis and become solely dependent upon the other, fully functional, limb.

The complication with foregoing upper limb prosthesis lies in the missed opportunity for early rehabilitation. As time passes, and you continue to overuse the functional upper limb, you may experience complications of the functional limb, including carpal tunnel syndrome and wrist sprains with early arthritic symptoms.

If you choose to forego the upper limb prosthesis, and rely solely upon your one functioning arm and hand, you will want to be certain the occupational therapist engages you in activities of daily living from writing to using scissors and knives, feeding yourself to dressing. All of these facets of your life will be affected, with or without prosthesis.

Driving a vehicle will still be possible should you wish to forego prosthesis to your upper limb amputation. With the installation of hand controls, your multiple limb amputation will not be a factor in your ability to drive as hand controls can manage your steering, braking and accelerating capabilities right at the fingertips of your one functional limb.

As with any traumatic multiple amputation, especially that involving one upper limb and one lower limb, the key to your efficient recovery lies in the early occupational rehabilitation. If you choose to forego a prosthetic device to the upper limb, understand there will be many great challenges and burdens placed upon your functional upper limb but, ultimately, these challenges can be overcome with the proper aggressive rehabilitation.