Calling MacGyver

Amputees are, especially in matters of their legs, very resourceful. I distinctly remember one of the first legs I had was very hard and extremely uncomfortable. In an effort to soften the edges, I taped mini pads around the top! It actually worked for a while.

When I met my current "leg guy" for the first time, I walked in on a leg that had gotten way too big. My solution? Stuff wash cloths into the leg to take up space. Each cloth was carefully positioned--and it actually worked for a while.

When the activity of your life depends on something mechanical, you have to figure out ways to keep going. The alternative of being on crutches is not very appealing to most!

If amputees are resourceful, then prosthetists (leg guys), at least the really good ones, are the MacGyvers of an amputee's world. They have to think outside the box because what works for one amputee may not work for another. Every anatomy is different. Every lifestyle is different.

I noticed that my leg had been losing suction for a while. (Don't you love the diagrammed picture below?!) My leg is held on by suction. Every morning, I use a pull sock to pull my stump into the socket. Then, I put a valve into what should have been labeled the valve housing rather than the valve--you'd think after so many years, I'd have all this right! I'm good to go for about 12 hours.

(The C-Leg is the knee unit that has been so great! Falls, thankfully, are much less with this knee. It is hugely expensive because it has a micro computer inside and actually takes a lot of the "thinking" out of walking but so worth it.)

In the past, the air has always been coming in around the valve housing--a little tightening and it is all fixed. I had checked the valve housing and it was tight. I finally made an appointment to let the professionals check it out. My appointment was Friday afternoon.

When your prosthetist comes back holding your leg in 2 parts, you know that there may be a problem! Turns out that the air wasn't coming in from the valve housing but from the socket itself which had a crack in it. My foot was also making noise that sounds like a crack but there wasn't a visible crack. (I knew it was getting time for new leg; I was just hoping to buy a little more time!)

So, on a late Friday afternoon with my prosthetist going out of town for 2 weeks, he turned MacGyver to buy us some time until he gets back and I can go up to begin the process of having a new leg made.

Here's his handiwork...
Glue and duct tape!! My Dad always said that anything could be fixed with duct tape.

PS--The rounded "window" in the frame is one of those unique things that prosthetists have to be able to think of. My stump has an area that stays fairly sore. The window provides some flexibility and provides some relief for that area. Most frames are solid through there but that really hurt. Thinking outside the box...