Lend a hand for Mar’s new hand!

Years later and with the help of the Internet, I diagnosed myself with what is called ‘Brachydactyly’ (Greek βραχύς = “short” plus δάκτυλος = “finger”): a congenital abnormality which literally means “shortness of the fingers and toes” (digits). A bone malformation that occurs 1 in 32,000 births. Mine happens to be on my left hand.

Growing up with a noticeable condition like this one, made me more of an introvert than I would have otherwise been. I had trouble making friends, I used to hide during recess at school and eat lunch under the stairs all by myself. I was shy. My classmates stared at me and many of them avoided me as if it were contagious. During this time, I developed a friendship that would last my entire life, my pockets!

You would think that growing up and entering adulthood, discrimination based on my disability would stop and things would get easier, but it didn’t for the most part.

It was, and still is, hard for me to accomplish basic things like opening jars, any kind of bottles or doorknobs (the round ones are my worst nightmare). Tying my hair up has been a struggle since the very beginning, I never get it right, or my shoelaces (I wore Velcro until 10th grade) and do not even get me started on that one. Getting dressed in the morning to go to work is a struggle. I still get frustrated sometimes, but I have learned to manage it.

On the other hand (no pun intended), some of my difficulties can get dangerous. I do not feel safe when holding cutlery, or driving, or holding fragile objects. I have had accidents where I have put my physical integrity and that of those around me in jeopardy. It can get very ugly very fast!

It takes longer for me to do things because first, I need to think them through step-by-step! I need to calculate if I have enough grip to hold on to things and not drop them and break them. How wide objects are. Are they wet? or dry? What materials are they made of? Is it slippery? plastic? or glass? Imagine doing that all day, every day. It gets exhausting and extremely weary.

Back in June 2019, I found Naked Prosthetics on Facebook, a company that provides custom, high-quality prosthetic devices specifically for amputees with finger loss. I said to myself: “Maybe one day I´ll have one.” But I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

What I didn’t tell you before is that I’ve had two previous failed chances to get a prosthetic here in my country. One with a 3D printed prosthetics company that after an appointment and a promise to work with me, never called me back. And another one with a friend who bought a 3D printer but didn’t really have the knowledge to finish the prosthetic successfully. For a long time, I thought I didn’t deserve to feel normal.

The first time I saw NP’s video, I thought: “How am I going to afford a prosthetic like that?” It was impossible. Until one work trip to the US in October2019 changed my life.

Working as a photographer for FITCE, an International Trade Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I met Arturo and Margarita. They saw my limitations and asked me If I ever thought about how a prosthetic would improve my overall efficiency at work and life in general. I told them what I just told you and showed them all the technology and prosthetics pages, videos and blogs I’ve read and seen. They saw my excitement while talking about it, and expressed they wanted to help me get a professional hand prosthetic made by a specialized American company. As you can imagine, I started crying my heart out. I thought to myself: third time’s the charm; this one MUST be it!

We did not waste any time, we called and emailed everyone!

Arm Dynamics https://www.armdynamics.com partnered with Naked Prosthetics, replied in less than 24 hours! After a couple of emails and video calls, they confirmed the type of prosthetic that will be the most functional for me.

Here you can see the type of Prosthesis that awaits me.