My New Leg

I went to the prosthetics shop for my appointment last Wednesday and found this accidental history lesson leaning against the wall. The prosthesis on the right is a below-knee peg leg from the 19th century or earlier. The user would have bent his knee and rested it on the platform. The lower strap would have gone around the user’s lower thigh and knee, and the upper strap was a belt around the waist to stabilize the leg to the user’s body. The prosthesis in the middle is a post-World War Two model for an above-knee amputee. The socket is aluminum with a fiber liner inside and an articulated, wood foot. The prosthesis on the left is a contemporary below-knee suction socket with a cosmetic covering.

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In an earlier post, I discussed the problem of my leg clicking. Although I’ve more or less solved the problem of my socket being a bit tight, I haven’t made any headway with the clicking — which is now beginning to drive me a little batty.

We’re used to receiving sensory feedback when we walk, but it’s mostly physical and phenomenological. We feel our legs swing through the air, our feet rollover, our arms swing at our sides, our trunks gently sway side to side and roll up and down. We feel ourselves walk. But I don’t usually hear myself walk, and I find it really distracting.

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In an earlier post, I described two problems. One was that my stump shrinks during the day and swells back up at night, so the leg is a bit tight in the morning. It seems that the best way to deal with this is to wear a stump shrinker at night. A stump shrinker is essentially a tube of elastic fabric. You pull it halfway onto your stump, twist it, and double it back to pull the other half onto your stump.

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Although I’ve been devoted a bit of writing to how my prosthesis was made, what it feels like, and how it works, I haven’t really explained how I actually put the thing on each morning. So here’s a tutorial on how to put on a leg…

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Wayne sent my new liners so I wouldn’t have to come pick them up, and they arrived in the mail today. Here’s what one looks like out of the box. While sockets are custom fit and fabricated, most other prosthetics components are manufactured products like any other.

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Kim, my partner, says the socket looks edgy because it almost appears as if my stump were tattooed and the foot is attached directly to me. I’m almost embarrassed to say I’m spending way too much time walking around looking down at my leg and being pleased with myself. Hey, I may as well have fun with this. How many people get to recreate parts of their body every few years and custom design the skin while they’re at it?

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So far, so good. I’ve been wearing the new leg since picking it up this afternoon and just sent Wayne the following email:

Wayne,

Holy crap, you really outdid yourself on my leg. It’s the most beautiful prosthesis I’ve ever seen. And the fit appears to be perfect: I’ve been walking on it since I picked it up this afternoon and it feels great. Thank you so much!

Thanks again,
Steve Kurzman

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I picked up the final prosthesis today and was blown away by how great it looks. The lamination turned out beautifully! Here’s a few quick photos — more later…
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I have yet to see Michael Moore’s movie, “Sicko”, but I’ve read that it does a fair job of pointing out how our health care system is broken. Amen to that. While getting a new prosthesis, courtesy of my old insurance company, I have been applying for new health insurance. Sometimes we focus on the technology and forget that the access to this technology is very regulated and expensive.

I’ve received a couple letters from my prospective insurance company which I feel are worth relating here as an illustration of some of the hoops that people with disabilities have to jump through in order to get health care — and particularly insurance that will pay for prostheses and other necessary assistive technology.

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I decided to go with the Japanese-style dragon fabric. Audrey — the two year-old hider of fabric — and I went back to Mendel’s, bought another half yard, and dropped it off at the prosthetics shop. I hope this turns out well. Wayne said the final leg should be ready for me to pick up in a couple days.