Gee Kyle,

>Criminy!  What am I talking about?  I'm a left-hemi!  Must be the DST
>change.  I just can't get it together this am...I mean afternoon (see
>what I mean?).

        Are you blonde? Tee-Hee. She says - shaking her pale whitish gold
mop!

                    Thanks for the info!!


>Well, now that I've corrected myself here, I have to say that my
>position is easier than the "right-hemi" because we live in a
>right-handed world.

                That's true too!

>A lot of it, in my case, boils down to thinking the problem through and
>then figuring out a way around it.  At first, you think it's going to
>take forever (like the sleeve thing), but after you practice for a while
>things become second nature.

            She is really good with  that - she has learned to put her hair
in a ponytail and then turn it into a bun. It looks agonizing especial the
angle she holds her head - I am waiting for it to fall off one day.

>Check out some of the adaptive technology web-sites for amputees.  There
>are some pretty neat devices for the single-handed out there.

                Good idea!!

>Amber might not like this one at all, but it helped me quite a bit when
>I was a kid (12 or so):  My dad would strap my good hand to my chest
>with adhesive tape and have me do a different task every day with the
>spastic hand.  Some days it was eating (yeah, it was a mess, but who
>cared?), other days it was really challenging stuff like changing the
>spark plug in the lawnmower (That one took about four hours.  I hollered
>and pissed and moaned, but I finally did it.  He was so proud!).  I was
>much less spastic then, but it kept me going for a few years at least.

        Ummm...... well I encourage her to use her right hand, and she has
to if she wants to paint her nails!!! We used to have right handed
activities but since Amber's Dad walked out and I got laid off about the
same time - survival for us has been the main focus of my life - which meant
working up to 3 jobs at one point. I have joking thought about putting us up
for adoption in the paper - Free to good home, mother and child - quiet,
clean, affectionate, undemanding and housebroken. LOL


                                    Brightest Blessings
                                            Trisha