fargreencountryswiftsunrise from diversitycrosscheck submitted:
Hi. I’m currently writing a story where one of my characters lost his right arm in a war. I do know a little bit about amputation as my uncle lost his leg a few years ago, but I need to know in particular about etiquette when it comes to greetings and just general life if you would be willing to share. Thank you for your time and consideration.
As is common to these kinds of situations I will be talking about my experiences and not being a mouth piece for the community as a whole. And as a note, I don’t know much about the community of amputees, since I was born this way and not had my arm removed later in life.
As for etiquette: Just treat the person as you would anyone else! Don’t stare at their disability, don’t make any assumption on how they lost it, and while some people are okay with talking about their disability, don’t assume everyone is. I’m okay with being asked, but a war trauma amputee might not be.
As for life? At this point I personally have mastered anything I might need to do that is possible with one hand, such as carrying things by balancing them, buying pants that are a little too big because it’s easier to put on a belt than button jeans that are just a little tight, and with some effort do more finite movement things like paint my nails and put my hair in a ponytail. You’d have to talk to someone else about usage of prosthetics, a quick google search could probably round up blogs written by amputees, since I haven’t worn one since fourth grade.
You could even try doing things around your house with one hand to get a feel of what it might be like to accurately describe the frustrations your character will inevitably feel while trying to get accustomed to the life that he has now.
Good luck!