Shade’s fundraiser to help get him mobile again started off amazing. In 24 hour, he raised 1/4 of the total necessary funds to get the Myomo Myopro robotic orthotic and the LifeGlider ambulatory device. It shouldn’t be long before Shade is back on his feet and using his arm again.
For those just tuning in, the Myopro is a robotic arm orthotic that will be custom made to Shade’s arm. With the use of sensors like those EKG thingies you have at the doctor, the device will pick up signals when Shade wants to move his arm and translate those to the robot arm. So even if Shade can’t move his arm, the robot arm will do it for him. That means he’ll be able to stretch it out and pick up a glass, grab a door handle and turn it, or defend the galaxy against xenomorphs.
The LifeGlider is like a walker but very different. It straps around Shade’s body so that his center of balance is supported. That way, he isn’t leaning forward and likely to fall. Then he can practice walking without the worry of tipping sideways and bashing his head against the counter. It will also improve his ability to dance the tango.
Both of these devices are going to help Shade achieve independence. Please spread this message around to all your friends and local businesses. Let’s get Shade mobile again!
Let’s salute the great cyborgs of our time. RoboCop, Darth Vader, Inspector Gadget, and now the Shadenator 9000, the latest development in Shade technology. But first, this sci-fi tale needs some backstory.
As you are likely aware, Shade’s last two strokes three years ago (17 y.o) paralyzed his left side, wiping out any progress he’d made since his first stroke when he was twelve. (We’d just got him walking again, damn it!) Because his left arm and hand are so weak, they have tightened up, contracting the arm like an L and keeping his fist closed. This caused a vicious cycle. Because tasks are so hard to complete with his left arm and hand, he uses his right, and thus his lefty gets weaker and tighter. We were worried he might lose all use of it.
Then Aitza told me about a friend who started using a robotic device after his stroke and got full use of his arm again. And that’s how we discovered Myomo. It’s not a cult, I swear, though I may be an apostle after Shade and I went to try one out last week with Myomo representative Heather Ward.
Myomo, a contraction of My Own Motion, produces the MyoPro, a powered upper-extremity orthosis that’s straight out of a fanboy’s wet dream. The robotic brace straps on the recipient’s arm from shoulder to fingers. Soft bracelets embedded with sensors are worn on the upper arm and forearm. Like an EMG, they pick up myoelectric signals from the brain that trigger the muscles to contract and move the limb. These signals simultaneously trigger the robot’s motors to move the orthotic in accordance with the desired action. So if Shade wants to extend his arm, that signal is mimicked by the device, which will extend, adding strength to his own arm and allowing him to stretch it out.
Even if the wearer cannot naturally move part of the arm, as long as the brain signal is there, it can be boosted to a level where the orthotic will move it for him/her. For example, Shade cannot move his wrist up and down no matter how much he mentally strains to do so. However, on her laptop, Heather boosted his EMG signal and the robot moved the wrist up and down. Brain power.
Heather demonstrates the MyoPro.
What this means is when Shade straps on his assistive MyoPro robo-brace, he should be able to perform functions with that arm that he’s been unable to do since his second stroke. Things like putting dishes on a high shelf, grabbing a water bottle off a table or petting his precious cat Cheetah. And because he’ll be using his arm more, it will strengthen and loosen up and he may be able to start using his arm more without the device. Plus, I’m shooting for the upgraded version with the laser cannons on it. Pyew, pyew!
What’s more, we’re looking at another device that may help Shade get back on his feet. We’re going to have a fundraiser soon to help with the expense of this device. I’ll tell you about the other device and the upcoming fundraiser in the next blog. Once we get these devices the Shadenator 9000 will be launched.
“Made in the Shade” Game Night is open to anyone tween and up who likes games: high schoolers, middle schoolers, adults, 500-year-old vampires, intelligent alien life forms, bigfoot. As long as you like to play, you can come. Feel free to bring your own games, too. We can play in big groups and in small groups or just one on one.
We also want to encourage folks with disabilities to come play with us. This night is especially for you to meet other like-minded people and have a little fun. If you know someone with a disability that might enjoy this night, bring them along.
What kind of games will we play? Board games, Minute to Win It games, card games, guessing games, mind games, drawing games, strategy games, goofy games, roll playing games, dice games, you name it. Shade wants to play all sorts of games and he wants you to play them with him. (Okay, we won’t be playing video games because we can’t afford to buy 20 Xboxes. Plus, we want to interact like social humans.)
We will put a donation jar out each week. If you feel like donating a little money, we’ll use that to buy different games for future weeks. No pressure though.
About Shade Crampton: Shade suffered a stroke in 2001 at the age of 12 and a couple more in 2016 at the age of 17. He uses a wheelchair to get around. He has memory and processing issues and has trouble using his left arm and standing. But he’s a smart, hilarious, down-to-earth teen, who won’t let something as trivial as a debilitating stroke get in the way of his fun. He’s a whiz at backgammon and he knows every single Pokemon on the planet. He wanted to start this game night so other people, with and without disabilities, can socialize and have fun. Come out and join us.
Shade is home after five weeks in multiple hospitals. After a second stroke, and then a third stroke. After multiple sessions of MRIs and MRAs and angiograms. After weeks of intensive therapy at the best damn therapy hospital I’ve witnessed. (We’ve seen a few, and no disrespect to the other fine establishments, but Brooks was extra superduper special with ice cream.)
Shade had gotten in the rhythm of six sessions of therapy daily with an army of occupational, physical, speach, music, and recreational therapists, and their assistants, interns and volunteers helping him through the tough job of getting his left side to wake back up. Not to mention the fantastic doctors, nurses and techs checking up on him and the meal staff taking his order and delivering his three hot meals to his bedside. Shade became a veritable celebrity patient amongst the staff. On his graduation day, when he gave his speech, it was accompanied by laughter and tears from the gathered crowd. Employees kept popping into the room the last day to say goodbye.
And then he was released. Everyone take a deep breath and sigh. It’s all over.
Except for the part where Shade has to get used to living in his house, which he used to be able to navigate easily by scooting, crawling and, most recently, walking. Except now he can’t use his left arm. Despite the great strides he’s made on that side, it’s not enough to help him get down the stairs, even scooting on his bottom. He can’t raise his arm above his shoulder or support himself on a handrail. He can very slowly close his hand, but he cannot maintain even the slightest grip and opening his hand is extremely difficult. Thus, no picking up anything, even a sock. Forget tying a shoe. His left leg is a bit better than the arm, though it’s still much weaker than it should be. It tends to drag when we assist him with walking and he often rolls the ankle or step on his other foot. He doesn’t have the strength or balance to stand. We’re planning lots of therapies to work on this, but it’s a road that disappears into fog. We don’t know how it will end.
After the first stroke, and the recent second and third strokes, he never complained or questioned the reasons. But the day after Shade and Mami got back home from Brooks, Shade came to the realization of what he’d lost after putting in so much time and effort to recover. For the first time ever, he turned to Mami and said, “Why did this have to happen again?” He didn’t dwell on it, but the thought is now lingering there.
I wonder the same thing. My big brain tells me that this happened by chance. Random mutations in some tucked away DNA strand in the embryo that became Shade. The small flaw in the architecture that blew it up. Like the exhaust port on the Death Star. (The incompetent space engineer that designed that beauty got fired. Literally.)
The part of my brain that believes in the force and elves and the Greek gods and awesome (Adj. inspiring awe) stories wants to blame some invisible sky man or some virulent spirit or a glitch in the Matrix for the barrage of shitty luck that’s plagued Shade. After all, a story is always better with an antagonist. But blame wouldn’t help the situation at hand.
Shade’s at that point in the hero’s journey where he faces the abyss. He’s overcome great odds only to be thrown down hard, his lowest point, where it would be easiest to give up. Like when Luke got his arm lopped off by his daddy (Noooo! That’s not true. That’s impossible!) and then fell into the shaft and hung on with one arm for dear life on the ass end of Cloud City, questioning everything he ever knew and waiting for the worst. Sure, his arm was gone, but it was the damage to his psyche that threatened to make him quit.
Guess who got Luke out of his predicament. His friends. After sending out some force instant messages (Come get me), he got picked up by Leia and Chewie (and Lando, too), and they got him back to working order (with some robotic assistance.) And then he saved the galaxy … for a while.
That’s what Shade needs now. He needs good friends who are willing to spend time with him, exercise with him, play games, or just chill. We’ve got the therapy lined up and the doctor’s appointments scheduled. If you can help with the friendship part, that would help immensely.
(By the way, thanks Cody for coming over today and hanging out and all his friends that Facetimed him in the hospital.)
Every day Shade has been doing special foot and leg exercises given to him by our friend Denny, who knows a bit about recovery from brain injuries. Shade complains but does them. They’re not easy for him. Some aren’t easy for me. Picking up pencils from a smooth wooden floor with your toes is a frustrating task. I tried it. I could only get one in the air. Shade also does a series of squats and steps while holding on to the back of a chair. Great for the core. His favorite is kicking a soccer ball back and forth with his brother. Today, all the exercising paid off. Check out the video. It tells the story better than I ever could. He did this for a good half hour.
As of late, I’ve been thinking about how much I take for granted. Or as I’ve read in many a student essay: taking things for granite. What a lovely concept. I have a great family, nice house, meals on the table, but I often mistake them for a granular igneous rock out of which I might just make a kitchen counter. So goeth the English language, a living organism that metamorphoses daily through the goofs of the users.
I take for granted that my son survived a deadly stroke. I take for granted that he’s able to go to school and participate in classes. I want to stop taking everything for granted. I want to write about the greatness that happens daily but has been invisible because I’ve been living in my own microcosm. It’s a selfishness that has become my norm. My life is easier when I refuse to look outside the safety boundaries I’ve created for myself, when I keep my thoughts to myself.
See that. I managed to redirect that last paragraph to me (selfish) when my real focus should be Shade. He started eleventh grade this Monday at Central Florida Prep, two weeks before public school. He was ready. He had been volunteering as a Junior Counselor at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Blast Camp, the summer camp he was going to when he had the stroke. He worked with the young’uns, keeping them in line, helping them with activities, etc. He liked it, but I think he was ready to hang out with kids his own age again.
Of course, with school comes another year of struggling with homework. Yet somehow he manages to clear a bit of space in his injured brain to pack in advanced learning. He’s taking Geometry and U.S. History and Business. I hope his brain allows him to utilize these ideas in his future. He still has problems with long-term memory. The ideas flit around the surface but don’t like to bury deep in his mind.
That’s another thing I take for granted: my brain. It’s a lovely brain, but it could go at any moment. So could yours. Don’t freak out about that. Just appreciate it while you have it.
Shade is in mid-teen mutation as well. He’s sprouting up like the unkempt bougainvillea in my backyard. (I’m a lazy gardener.) He’s dealing with acne, which drives him nuts. It angers me a bit that he has to have acne, as if being angry helps. It’s as if Loki the trickster god thought, Here’s an easy target. Let’s give him one more issue to deal with. Hey, Loki, you deadened half his face already. He can’t shut his right eye. Quit torturing the kid.
He’s still rolling around in a wheelchair, but he goes to therapy every week to practice his walking. If only he could get his balance back. He’s got plenty of strength, but he still topples like a hewn pine when he takes a step. He can stand and crouch. He stands for long periods of time without assistance, but as soon as he takes a step, he falls. Is there another part of the brain that balance shifts to when the foot is put in motion? Must be.
There are new technologies that might help. WeHab uses a Wii Balance Board to help stroke victims regain balance through feedback. KIINCE is a company that developed a rehab machine that helps rebuild neuro-pathways that control balance. And Aitza’s got a friend who had a stroke that is undergoing an experimental stem cell procedure that may help him walk again. We’re looking into some of these. But as of now, he’s going to be in a long-term relationship with his roller.
Anyway, I thought some of you might want an update on Shade’s Progress. Aitza constantly tells me: There are people out there that need to know about him, people that have had strokes or traumatic brain injuries and want to see what others have been through. Shade can still inspire. He’s got that power. I guess that’s part of the “not taking it for granted” thing.
Help Shade get mobile again!
Shade's Progress 