“OK, but if I put too much pressure on it will the skin split open? There is a big cut there.”

He chuckled. “Call it incision, you will have it the rest of your life. It’s about eight inches long, I know it’s hard to imagine being cut that much and being alive but that is how it is. If it breaks open you put a tourniquet on it, make it as tight as possible and come to the hospital. A nylon wrapped tight will stop the bleeding.”

“What?”

“I’m kidding about half. Almost every amputee looks at their incision and worries if it will break open. I have seen a couple that did, all persons with poor circulation or someone that fell on the stump with no protection in the first few weeks. It’s hard to conceive the situation that would do that but given enough time, some will occur. It would take a fall that would possibly break your pelvis at the same time unless you fell on something sharp. But if it happened you would do the usual first aid, control the bleeding and get medical attention same as any injury.”

“OK. Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m very sure. Now, I need to get going. The nurse and rehab people will be getting you ready to go home. I’ll be in to see you, follow their instructions, if you don’t understand them, ask. One more thing, learn to pull your stump up where you can see the end of it, get to know what it feels like, what massaging it and touching it feels like and what it looks like. Then if something changes, you let someone know. Most bad things that can go wrong with your stump, in fact most of your body, you can either see or feel.”

“OK, but it feels funny looking at my,” she almost said “leg”, but blurted out “stump.”

“Looking at it isn’t evil or bad. Get to know it, and in fact, get to know your other leg. It is important that you take good care of it too.”

“OK.”

“Anything else before I go?”

“No.”

“Get with getting better.” He turned and left.

Betty came back after lunch.

“Hi there, I have some information for you. First, let’s see you pull off that temporary prosthesis and watch you wrap your stump. You know, you need to have your stump wrapped or in the cast except when you have it out to care for it?”