It Does Not Fit
If I have heard this once, I have heard it a million times. My stump hurts, because my leg does not fit. Now whose fault it that? Well in this article, I hopefully will guide you to the reason you leg does not fit properly.
First of all, no leg should hurt. Now, let us qualify hurt. When I say hurt, I mean that the socket is rubbing you in an area and you are getting a sore spot. Sometime this will be in the form of a breakdown in tissue, a sore, a blister or the like. This type of situation is the Run, do not walk, RUN to the Prosthetist and get this thing fixed. The first time you feel pain is not the time to quit. If you experience pain, you should by all means check your stump for any kind of breakdown in the tissue. It is very important to have a well healed and well cared for stump. Now for the other part.
You will feel pain. If you go out and lift 100 pounds, and you do this several times today, you will feel it tomorrow. You know the nagging pain of muscle use you will have for a day or two. You had no skin breakdown, no blister, no rubbing a sore, just muscle pain. That is NORMAL, in fact I have two legs and one I wear for fishing. Lately I have not been blessed with much time to fish. So, if and when I put this leg on, the first day or two it is uncomfortable. This is the way things in life go. You do too much and you suffer a little pain. Goes with the job, so to speak.
This pain however, causes no real threat to your body. This pain will go away in a day or two. I have talked to many amputees, and the fear of hurting their stump has kept them from living life. There is really no excuse for this type of behavior. Just as an athlete trains for an event, amputees need to train for use of the new leg. Then retrain when it is time for a leg change. This seems to be the most misunderstood part of the process in the client professional relationship. You as the amputee, should understand that all pain is not bad. I do not mean pain that causes injury. Just plain everyday muscle pain, you must learn know the difference.
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