Ouch June 17 by Steve
Well, now I’ve had a chance to try trotting around on the test socket and the feet, mostly just putting it on in the afternoon and wearing it around the house or while walking around the neighborhood.
Not much to say yet, except I’ve run into the first problem: ouch, the socket is too tight. Way too tight. The problem is that I had asked Wayne to make the socket more tightly fitting than on my current prosthesis, which is getting pretty loose. And he did…
I wear a silicone liner over my stump, and then cloth stump socks over that, inside the socket. My stump changes shape throughout the day, depending on the weather, my physical activity, how much water I drink, and any number of other factors. So I add cloth stump socks of various thicknesses during the day to maintain a snug fit inside the socket. When I first got my current leg four years ago or so, I didn’t need any socks in the morning — just the silicone liner — but would add a couple ply of socks during the day.
As my stump has become smaller, overall, during the past few years, I’ve had to wear more socks. Now, I use 2 1-ply socks or a 3-ply in the morning, and add a couple ply during the day as my stump shrinks. By evening, I’m wearing 4 or 5 ply thickness of socks. This isn’t a bad thing, per se, but means the fit isn’t very snug (hence, the need for a new leg) and the loose fit causes a pendulum effect which makes my leg feel heavy.
Anyway, I had asked Wayne to tighten up the new leg so I wouldn’t have to wear so many layers of stump socks, but have found that now I can’t put on the test socket in the morning! I have to wait until around 11am before I can even squeeze my stump into the thing, and then my stump kind of goes numb for a little while.
More on this and the feet later…
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Ivana Aug 3
Great project.
My father is amputee, lost his leg in WW2, so I grew up surrounded by artificial legs.
I know a lot about insurance red tape but it’s interesting to see whole process of producing the leg.
Neal Aug 3
I was directed to this site by a friend. What a great resource to give new amputees. I am a certified peer visitor for the ACA. I try to tell new amputees what to expect when they visit a prosthetist. I can now direct them to your site for a step-by-step dialogue on getting a new leg.
Isn’t that too tight feeling awful. I also like a snug fit, but when the throbbing starts and the pain shoots up the sciatic nerve, OUCH!!!!!!!!
Steve Aug 4
Ivana, thank you reminding me of the issue of insurance. I added a post above (”Calling Michael Moore…”) to briefly mention some of my own red tape.
Steve Aug 4
Neal, glad to hear the site can be a helpful resource to you. Good luck in your peer visitation work! Yes, the tightness can awful, but I’ve solved it by using stump shrinkers at night so my stump doesn’t swell up overnight. I’ll post about this ASAP.