Hale resident Duane Caverly has never been one to sit around.
The married father of four worked in the maintenance department for Hale Area Schools for more than three decades before retiring in 2003. He was a volunteer firefighter in Plainfield Township for 38 years and fire chief for 28 years.
A farmer all his life, he serves on the Plainfield Township Zoning Board of Appeals, Plainfield Township Parks and Recreation Board, the Iosco County Parks and Recreation Board and the Iosco County Airport Board. And he's running for re-election to keep his trustee's spot on the Plainfield Township Board, a post he's held for 16 years.
But it was a fall from a ladder back in 2000 that changed his life.
He began experiencing pain and fluid build-up in his left shoulder. Tests eventually led doctors to discover a cancerous bone tumor in the upper portion of his arm. Caverly had surgery to remove the cancer and doctors inserted a metal rod from his shoulder to his elbow. The surgery worked - for a while.
About a year later, however, the tumor came back. Caverly lost complete use of his arm.
"I probably had 80, 90 percent use of my arm back when the tumor came back in the elbow," he said.
His doctor offered to remove the cancer and rebuild his arm, but there was a catch: She could not guarantee she could remove all the cancer.
Caverly opted for a more drastic measure, one that was likely to eradicate all the cancer: He had doctors remove his left arm.
Caverly still gets choked up as he talks about the decision and recovery period.
"There was never at any one time I didn't think I could beat it," he said. "It depends on how bad you really want to live."
After the surgery, Caverly contacted Wright Brace & Limb, a West Branch company that made a special prosthesis for him.
Joe Wright, who owns the business with his wife, Crystal, said making an arm for Caverly was challenging because, while many amputees have their shoulder left intact, Caverly did not. Caverly's prosthesis includes a fake shoulder with electrodes which are activated by muscles in his back and chest.
Each electrode and a switch Caverly operates with his chin allows him to control the wrist, shoulder, elbow and hand mechanisms, Wright said.
"In three days he was using it," Wright said remembering back to when Caverly first got his new arm in the spring of 2006.
Caverly's arm came with a price tag of about $75,000, paid for by insurance. The new limb gives him the freedom to pick up 20 pounds with his "hand" and apply a pinch force of 25 pounds between his two clamp-like "fingers."
The arm gets its power from batteries inside the elbow.
It's been the subject of amazement among children, including Caverly's own grandchildren.
"They're fascinated by it," said Caverly's wife of 46 years, Linda.
Caverly, 66, says he's never let his artificial arm slow him down. He estimates he still does "probably 90 percent of what I did (before the amputation)."
"I snow plowed this winter with the arm and everything. And I ride horses with my granddaughter."
He tends to 25 feed cattle and 200 acres of hay.
"I can drive the tractor. I can drive the baler. I can do it all," he said. "I basically do pretty much what I want to do."
He manages to fit in some fun, too.
"I go four-wheeling, ride a snowmobile," he said. "Maybe not as crazy as I did but I still do it."
A stroke in December delivered Caverly a bump in the road to progress but he's back at physical therapy, working to reclaim the control he once had. Caverly is working with Crystal Wright, an occupational therapist with Progress Physical Therapy, to perfect the control he has over his arm.
