A few weeks ago my palm was crushed and my pointer finger got smashed into the mass of remenant muscles and nerves from my amputated finger. This also exacerbated the damage to the intrinsic muscles of my ring finger. While I’ve been waiting to get into the Mayo clinic for some specialty expertise on what can be done for this new tissue damage, I’ve experienced a multitude of setbacks. Apart from the phantom nerve pain and frequent, violent spasms in my hand and arm, my ring finger has become exponentially more fragile. Even using a keyboard too long gets painful now. But what’s really frustrating is the number of times it feels like I tear something doing tasks that didn’t used to bother me.

The latest tearing pain came from trying to work some plaster in class, something I’ve done countless times before. The pain was so strong that I new I shouldn’t dare try it again until I know for sure I’m not causing any more tissue damage. But there’s only so much I can do working the plaster with just my left hand. I was very discouraged.

But the next day I awoke with renewed determination and an idea on how I could finish the project in class. I just needed to take a detour to make my own device first!

My idea was pretty simple – mount a 1″ spring clamp to the bottom of a hand orthosis so I could still hold and control the tools for working the plaster without actually holding the tools. Much to my surprise, this idea got the job done on the first try!

Realizing it might be a solution for other tools that I have struggled to use, I took it home and tested it in the kitchen. Spatulas are surprisingly awkward without a middle finger, but with my device, I had a secure grip and much better control. I’m slowly running out of excuses for avoiding the kitchen!

So perhaps this new injury is really a gift. Without it, I wouldn’t have had the inspiration for a device that also works well in the kitchen!