Today is my one week anniversary with the new leg. I went to see the prosthetist this morning for some much needed adjustments.

Yesterday I had met with my Spasticity doctor. She was doing a prosthesis progress report. She was able to evaluate & translate my problems to the Prosthetist properly so that I could get the fixes I needed. Both her & I were perplexed as to exactly how in the hell he was going to fix my issues on an unmodifiable carbon-fiber socket and since the socket seemed to be built like an hours glass with the top being smaller than the bottom. I could barely get my leg into the smaller top part of the socket. Once my stump was thru the top, it dangled in a cavern-like lower part of the socket, touching the walls of the socket long enough to cause a nasty blister.

Among other things, my stump had shrunk in length by about a 1/2”.  It was no longer hitting the vacuum pump properly in the bottom of the socket – I’ll explain that part another day.  The stump was too big around to put even one-one-ply sock (for volume control) on the end or even the just the tip-of-the-stump & still get past the top of the socket.  I had a problem that was described as “bell clapping” where my stump was not making full contact with the walls of the larger bottom portion of the socket.  It must make full contact to work properly. This caused my leg/knee to sink too far down into the socket squeezing the hell out of my knee and shin bone. Because I was sinking down so far, it was making my knee all but impossible to bend as the socket was digging into the back of my knee.  I was completely sore, swollen, now nursing a blister, to top it all off – I couldn’t use the stump socks for padding or volume control.

Seems my Prosthetist knew what he was doing. He was able to work some magic today & put some inner padding behind the soft inner-socket as well as some other adjustments that made it fit “near” perfect.  I say near, as it seems that things are continually changing. But at least now I can use stump-socks to help with volume control going forward.

These new changes have been good. My stump has already started shrinking in volume as it’s supposed to.  Fluid is being naturally pumped out. Because of that, I can now use the stump socks for cushioning & volume control. I’m still a little sore, but I can walk with a cane really well. My leg isn’t sinking too far into the socket. And the vacuum pump I was talking of earlier that keeps my leg attached is working properly now.