This evening, I ate part of dinner without using my arms or hands. It was difficult to drink water or clean my face off. As you can imagine, eating dinner using only your tongue and mouth is really messy! I had to get a rag, put it on the table, and rub my face on it.
The experience was embarrassing and funny. My brothers did the exercise with me, so I didn't feel that awkward, but if I had been the only one eating without my hands, it would have been really hard. It's challenging to imagine what it would be like day in, day out, never going out to eat, always being stared at and always dependent on others.
The most surprising discovery of the exercise for me was that the awkwardness went away when others were in the same boat. I actually enjoyed it! But in real life, no one wants to eat without hands when they can eat with fork and spoon, so few people are going to choose to make a person with limited use of their arms feel more comfortable by not using their arms either. Doing this exercise really brought home to me the struggles that people go through when their disability affects basic parts of living. If BioMed technologies can help with that in any way, it would really improve quality of life for people who are deeply affected.
