Support Community for Amputees

A week after this, the diarrhea-inducing course of antibiotics seems to have done its job: my residual phalanges are now healing nicely, the swelling is down and the pain is subsiding - although not the phantom pain: that's still going on and it sucks...

And yeah, the test results came back and I did have an infection. And the surgeon did consider doing more chop-chop if the antibiotics didn't work, and I wasn't all that keen...

I know it's still nobody's problem but mine ultimately, but I'm a happy camper right now. So ya know, just sharing the joy with y'all 🙂

This group is awesome!

So I had revision surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago to remove simple bone spurs. It was a half-hour, 5-sitch affair that went well... until it didn't.

The incision isn't healing well. my residual phalanges hurt more and more every day. The pain is going up my foot. The phantom pain is off the charts and not letting up - and now it's waking up in my other foot too for reasons unknown.

The surgeon kept telling me it was okay, just wait until it gets better. But it doesn't. And so I saw him again today and now he seems worried too. He says I might have bone infection and he gave me a horse's course of antibiotics.

I know nobody can do anything about any of this - particularly the phantom pain: it's like tinnitus, it's just your thing to deal with. But... well, I'm scared and my family doesn't really understand. And I don't want to bother them with any of this either. I know they mean well, but there's only so many times you want to hear somebody complain about the same thing.

So, that's my outlook for the weekend I guess...

If you don't have use of your hands.

See also this video:

It's basically a giant optical mouse usable with one foot.

So I got tired of waiting for the slow-slow public hospital and decided to have my bone spurs removed in a private clinic. I got the surgery yesterday, and I've been lying in bed with my leg elevated, trying not to move, waiting for the pain to subside.

This morning, the phone rang in the living room. Damn... I got on my feet, grabbed the crutches and hurried out my bedroom to answer the phone.

It was the clinic: "Hello Sir! You've had surgery at our clinic yesterday!.To thank you for your business, we would like to offer you a free podiatrist foot and nail care consultation!"

...

Really?

I know it's just a machine triggering the call for a commercial offer. But they could at least have someone check the person's medical record first. It's a bit depressing. Kind of like when my Dad reached the age of 100 and he started getting ads for baby formula because the advertisers' database encoded the age on 2 digits...

I question whether reaching "flagship level" in prosthetics and the unprecedented growth of the domestic prosthetics industry is something a country should be proud of.

I believe the lady is Mandy Horvath.

Fantastic-looking 3D-printed BK prosthetic - FDA-approved, waterproof, 50% lighter and cheaper than conventional prostheses.

It seems quite durable too 🙂

Not directly related to limb loss - not at all in the video, in fact.

But I'm posting this here because I can't say enough good things about saunas for phantom pain relief: in my case, phantom pain manifests itself in the form of electric shocks and, more annoyingly, intense itching that I obviously can't scratch, and one of the only things that work for me is a nice hot sauna.

If you have access to a sauna or a hot spa somewhere, give it a spin next time it hits!

Here are videos of the adjustable socket systems mentioned in the guide:

• Click Medical Adjustable Sockets:
  

• LIM Innovations Infinite Socket:
  

• Martin Bionics Socket-less Socket:
  

This guide is rather old (2018), there are other systems out there. But they all work pretty much on the same principles.

I love this project. Ian Davis is so rad!

I'd better be careful with my fingers, seeing as though I ain't got spare toes...

I'm usually pain-free - including phantom pain - which I'm really grateful for.

So I got cocky: I told my landlord I'd be out of this house and into our new house in 7 days. It's totally possible. Or at least it would be if I wasn't me...

I'm 5 days in, the house is almost empty - we're camping here basically. All I have left to do is move our beds and transfer permanently to our new home and... I can't do it. I'm lying on the couch with intense phantom pain because I've been on my feet for too long for days, and I can't do anything about it. My wife is looking at me like I've betrayed her, and I dread calling the landlord for an extension - which he would love of course, because that means having to pay for an extra month's rent. All that because I can't get my sorry ass off the couch like a fucking failure.

I feel so defeated...