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Would you rather lose both legs or one arm?
- Thread starter Kraftwerk
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CornBurrito
Member
What if one of the posters saying "my legs for sure" was already wheelchair bound?
Cameron122
Member
Elfforkusu
Member
An arm. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.
Alchemy
Why are most arm-lobbers assuming they can choose their non-dominate arm?
Sure if you're already old and then stop walking (which is as much exercise as most elderly get) then your health goes to crap. But we're all young and it isn't like you suddenly loose the ability to exercise by being in a wheelchair.
Cameron122
Member
My bro is a suit of armor now
Cameron122
Member
My wheelchair makes me fuckin' jacked. I've had a sixth pack since I was like ten.
Gentlemen given the choice I recommend keeping your arms
Gentlemen given the choice I recommend keeping your arms
A Pretty Panda
fuckin' called it, man
That's what I was saying! Except I'd skip out on the wheelchair and walk around on my hands and get brolic.
I'd have so much fun without legs, fucking legless cart wheel and shit.
Lucian Cat
Kissed a mod for a tag; liked it
OK that's just spooky. I started watching brotherhood like an hour ago
Shadow of the BEAST
Banned
ill take the legs of.
sure youll be handicapped.
but i think we are alot closer to getting good leg prosthetic than arm and hand prosthetic.
sure youll be handicapped.
but i think we are alot closer to getting good leg prosthetic than arm and hand prosthetic.
Above knee. Your legs. Not half of them. Otherwise the question needs to be rephrased, right? So prosthetics isn't really an option.
I'd lose my arm, keep my legs. No brainer. Could still walk, run, play soccer, snowboard, dance and not have to do a million other activities in a wheelchair (eg, cooking).
What would suck: no guitar, no video games, difficult to type.
But fuck... my legs. They're so much more important than the loss of one arm.
There's two additional things people need to consider instead of just debating whether or not you'd have the use of your arm or legs.
One is Phantom Limb Syndrome, where the brain doesn't understand why its missing limb isn't responding to its signals, and so it strenuously tries to reestablish neural contact, resulting in significant pain that is mostly untreatable. At least, that's one scientific interpretation for this type of pain that's experienced by the majority of amputees. If you lose both your legs your pain will be double than just missing one arm.
The second thing to consider is your eating habits. Losing both your legs will result in a far more significant loss of bodily metabolism as opposed to losing just one arm. Even more so since walking burns calories. This is true because your legs are mostly muscle and make up a higher percentage of your body weight. If you chose to lose both your legs as opposed to your arm, you will have to cut your calorie intake far more than if you just lost one arm. So if you like to eat, you need to consider this.
One is Phantom Limb Syndrome, where the brain doesn't understand why its missing limb isn't responding to its signals, and so it strenuously tries to reestablish neural contact, resulting in significant pain that is mostly untreatable. At least, that's one scientific interpretation for this type of pain that's experienced by the majority of amputees. If you lose both your legs your pain will be double than just missing one arm.
The second thing to consider is your eating habits. Losing both your legs will result in a far more significant loss of bodily metabolism as opposed to losing just one arm. Even more so since walking burns calories. This is true because your legs are mostly muscle and make up a higher percentage of your body weight. If you chose to lose both your legs as opposed to your arm, you will have to cut your calorie intake far more than if you just lost one arm. So if you like to eat, you need to consider this.
I think it depends on your current interests. If you're interested mainly in relatively immobile activities, you'll value having both arms.
There is a lot of jury-rigging to get to replace your legs (and I'm talking about legs, not just ankles and feet). Jogging, hiking, sex, skiing, biking, many sports, cooking, will allow you to still be relatively "normal" with one arm. Being able to run with children or friends through forests, sandboxes, and creeks, having more options for sexual positions, getting up in the middle of the night to effortlessly take a piss or fix a sandwich, all seem to me to be better with legs, especially if you don't have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on protheses or retrofitting your home.
I also travel a lot, and I think plane, bus, train, and subway travel seem awfully inconvenient for someone without legs, especially in other countries where there are no ADA laws to require handicap accessibility. The Great Wall of China is largely handicap inaccessible.
There is a lot of jury-rigging to get to replace your legs (and I'm talking about legs, not just ankles and feet). Jogging, hiking, sex, skiing, biking, many sports, cooking, will allow you to still be relatively "normal" with one arm. Being able to run with children or friends through forests, sandboxes, and creeks, having more options for sexual positions, getting up in the middle of the night to effortlessly take a piss or fix a sandwich, all seem to me to be better with legs, especially if you don't have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on protheses or retrofitting your home.
I also travel a lot, and I think plane, bus, train, and subway travel seem awfully inconvenient for someone without legs, especially in other countries where there are no ADA laws to require handicap accessibility. The Great Wall of China is largely handicap inaccessible.
SolarPowered
Member
My left arm.
sankt-Antonio
Banned
Booth legs and the arm. Just so i can say i'm the toughest guy around town.
As much as it'd suck to be unable to play games, there's also a LOT of things that would be really inconvenient with just a single arm. At the same time though I think it's hard to fully understand just how much mobility is lost from having neither leg.
Most of the games I tend to like are RPGs, and there are one hand controller options (or were anyway), so thinking about it I'm kind of inclined to stick with losing the non-dominant (left) arm over legs. Of course if it were both arms or both legs I'd keep both arms any day, I'll have a lot of trouble moving around either way but at least I can pick up and manipulate objects naturally still.
drugstore_cowboy
Member
I'd rather lose my legs over an arm.
They are fucked anyway, tumour on my left knee needs an op and my right was mashed up.
They are fucked anyway, tumour on my left knee needs an op and my right was mashed up.
Illithid Dude
Member
Arm. Technology has come far enough that I can live normally and comfortably with an robotic arm. In a way, it would actually be rather exciting.
In my ideal fantasy world I'd say take the legs so I could get super awesome cyborg enhancement legs and be ~6'9".
But for now, it'd have to be the non-dominant arm. I can't believe so many people are saying both legs, videogames be damned. Hell, I could still play Persona, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, ect just fine with one arm.
But for now, it'd have to be the non-dominant arm. I can't believe so many people are saying both legs, videogames be damned. Hell, I could still play Persona, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, ect just fine with one arm.
computers putin'
Member
I'd choose my left arm. but if it's a choice between my dominant arm and my legs, well, I'd tell whatever person that has kidnapped me and left me with this unseemly choice to just put one between my eye and finish me. But if he says no, then my legs, I guess.
Cameron122
Member
You can still play games without a left arm. Most/all of them, even.
(I have a paralysed left arm)
Dabookerman
Member
Legs. I don't really need them, plus prosthetic legs are awesome.
British Monsoon
Member
Legs. Yeah, it would suck trying to get around, and probably even more in a thousand unforseen ways, but if I lost an arm I wouldn't be able to play guitar any more, which is one of the few joys I find in life.
How do you do it?
Race to be King
Banned
Left arm, definitely - my two main hobbies are running and dancing. It would be a drag having to type one-handed at work, but I'd manage.
Banana Kid
Member
I feel like I'd be able to do a lot more in a wheelchair with both arms than with both legs and one arm. A dude with no legs can still work on a computer, so I'd probably be able to hold down a job a lot better than if I was missing an arm.
I prop up the controller on my leg and control the right analog with my thumb and left with my palm, face buttons with index finger (the backside mostly, sometimes results in blisters) and ring finger, triggers/trigger buttons with index or middle finger. Subject to lots of switching depending on what's going on, though -- this is just how I'd put it down typically. Left trigger stuff is inconvenient but I've run across very few (worthwhile) games that use it actively and importantly enough to be an issue; the only games that come to mind are the Ninja Gaiden games and they let me both flip block to the right side. KB/M and Wii motion only games could seem to be a no-go from a surface view but between control profilers for PC games that don't have controller support and controller mapping in Dolphin, those can be worked with. Really, it's about being quick. I can't keep my fingers on all buttons at all times of course, but I've adapted to react and be able to move around the controller quickly. It's the same thing with my typing -- I also type with only my right hand and I type at 80+ wpm.
Handhelds are mostly more of a pain in the ass when they're wide-oriented and I end up blocking the screen a bit, but it's no big deal I guess. Part of the reason why GBA SP (as well as the original GBs I suppose) is my favorite handheld design. The DS is also good because a lot of games keep unimportant/menu stuff at the bottom where the controls and such are. Not that most of the games worth playing on the DS are particularly difficult to control, anyways.
As somebody who is actually arm-disabled, I'm sort of shocked to see people not only choosing legs but trying to look enlightened and arguing for them, lol. Perfectly fine without my left arm's function -- I wilfully gave up on trying to regain it because the surgery & recovery process was too emotionally and physically painful and it would've destroyed my education as I had to take a few months off for each surgery. There was just no point considering what I can do without it.
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