Laura gets a New Leg

Day 80

Laura went for her leg fitting early in the morning. They took pictures and measurements of her good leg then casted her stump and let the plaster harden in place. The cast was taken off and she was told to come back about three.

Laura was back at the prosthetist’s office at two forty five. She was taken back to the fitting area. The prosthetist’s brought in a socket and slid it on her stump.

“How does that feel?”

“Better than the one I have.”

“I hope we can do better than that. The one you are using was made quickly in the OR on a stump that had not had time to mature. We had a better shot at it now. And now we are going to fine tune it.” He put a pylon in the adapter on the socket had her stand. Several times he adjusted the length until he was satisfied. Finally he marked the length on the pylon and slid the socket off her stump and sprayed something into it. He slid the socket back on her stump and had her put her weight on it. After a few seconds he had her sit and he took off the socket. The assistant carefully cleaned her stump while the prosthesist looked inside the socket. He took it off to another room for a few minutes. When he came back he put it back on her stump and had her stand. He asked if there were any spots that felt like they were pressing more. She sat and pointed to a couple spots. He went out, did something to the socket and made some changes. This was done three times. When there were no more pressure points the prosthestist removed the marked pylon, marked the hinged pylon and put it on the new socket. He showed her the suction valve that released the socket.

Laura stood and tried walking on the new socket. It was much more comfortable and felt far more steady than the one put on her stump in the OR. After some walking around the office the prosthesist took the socket in the back room and invited Laura to come with him. He took the pylon off the socket and sat it on a shaft the size of the pylon. He placed a sheet of plastic in the machine, closed a cover and turned it on. Through the cover Laura watched as the plastic sheet with a pylon attachment was translated to a socket like the one she was wearing. She asked about the process. He told her it was not only creating a second socket, it was also recording the information on a CD so they could create another socket for her if needed. They went back to the fitting room and the new socket was fitted to her stump. It fit as well as the original. He re-assembled her pylon with the new socket and gave it back to her. She would now be using a new socket with her pylon.