ROCKFORD – He keeps his arms in a black basket that hangs on the wall of his bedroom, alongside his old Genoa-Kingston jerseys.

“My arms aren’t fun to untangle, with all these cords and wires,” Ethan Menges said as he stood next to his electric wheelchair in his bedroom, while his 3-year-old nephew and 6-month-old black Labrador retriever rolled around the floor.

Menges, a 24-year-old Genoa-Kingston high school alumnus, is struggling to thrive as he navigates life as a quadruple amputee. He had been an athlete – captain of the Genoa-Kingston basketball and football teams, who also played baseball and ran track – and graduated in 2010 as class valedictorian.

He lost his limbs last year after a viral infection caused him to fall into a coma, during which he developed bed sores that caused a lack of blood flow to his arms and legs.

Menges is living with his sister, Brittney Menges, a roommate and two dogs – pit bull Tiny and black Labrador retriever Raffi, in Rockford as he plans his May wedding and looks for apartments for himself and future wife Jordon Mathieu, whom he said doesn’t quite approve of his habit of using his prostheses to alarm people.

“Whenever I have my hands on, I sometimes just sit there with them like this,” he said, smiling as he turned his prosthetic hand backwards.

“But I basically just learned to live without my arms. I mostly wear these when I am cooking in the kitchen or going out in public.”

The prosthetic hands are awkward and imprecise. He controls the grip by tensing his back muscles, which trigger the pull cords and release tension to open and close the hands. The fingers can’t move independently, however, which makes things like gripping doorknobs and meal prep difficult.

“I’m not particularly fond of these,” Menges said. “I am working to trying to get an electric arm through touch bionics.”

Electronic arms have a much wider variety of grips and can even be programmed through a smartphone app. Because they still are considered experimental, most insurance companies won’t cover the cost, Menges said.

Cooking is something Menges has been working at. He recently bought a adaptive cutting board, which helps stabilize things like apples and cucumbers so they don’t slip off the board while he tries to cut them. Still, it can take up to 15 minutes to slice up an apple and he frequently drops the knife – a frustrating trend.

“I really don’t like breaking things,” he said.

Brittney Menges said she frequently gets texts throughout the day from her brother, warning of a broken plate, crockpot or turned over table.

“For him it’s like the end of the world, and he feels terrible about it,” Brittney Menges said. “But its like, ‘Dude, I have four crock-pots, don’t worry about it.’ ”

Simple changes around the house do help, however. They keep their peanut butter, crackers and cereal in Tupperware containers, which are easier to open. Dycem rubber grips are wrapped around doorknobs, so they are easier to turn. He also is training puppy Raffi to be a service dog, although right now the dog is less than helpful.

“I mean, he runs around the house bringing things to me,” he said. “Like if I’m in the living room, he will bring me shoes and things from the bedroom.”

But if Menges isn’t careful, the shoes end up in Raffi’s crate before they make it onto his feet. But he should be quick to train, he said.

“He’s really smart,” Menges said. “It only took me like 15 minutes to teach him to sit. … I want him to be able to pick up things. … We’re working on teaching him, ‘Leave it.’ “

Brittney Menges’ pit bull, Tiny, is less than helpful, she said.

“I mean, he’ll eat food off the floor but that’s about it,” she said.

Brittney Menges is a nursing student and said that its going to be weird for her when her brother leaves home after the wedding.

“It’s just going to be quiet,” she said.

Right now, a lot of people are usually around. Ethan watches his nephew, Leon Merkel, a few days a week and also tutors his niece. The learning curve is steep but doable, he said,

“You can’t try to do everything at once,” he said. “Because then it gets kind of overwhelming. You have to do it slowly. For me, I always like to think about how I did something and how I can do it better, what can make it easier the next time.”