It's almost a year since my right leg was amputated. And today, I got my third socket. It's a different kind of socket, and I'm not quite comfortable with it. The last beauty was held on the limb by a pin and ratchet system. This socket is held on the limb by suction. Air goes out the bottom of the socket when you pop your limb into it. Then, a hearty sleeve is pulled over a large part of the socket and up high on the thigh. Now, limb from thigh down is encased like a sausage, sort of like being vacuum packed. (There is a more sophisticated system where vacuum packing is really used, and that is likely to be next). I think I will call the doc and see if I can't get some PT so that I really master this. I want to be able to go down stairs reciprocally. I think this socket will support that, but I need some help figuring out how to do it and then practicing that.
In terms of beauty, I had made another covering for this socket - and I will get some pictures of it and put them out here (I think I can figure that out) as well as on my facebook page. I am not as pleased with this socket as art as I am with the first one. Maybe, it's because the big black sleeve covers a large part of the socket, and maybe it's because I didn't put enough colors in it. What I learned it that once the covering (tattoo in prosthetic terms) is fitted to the socket, resin is poured over all. The resin has deepened/darkened the colors of the tattoo - and because it wasn't as multi-colored to start with, it is less interesting, This is another learning experience.
I was away last week with my Santa Fe Women (SFW) friends. We stayed at a place on Marco Island, Florida. Did some walking, took a boat ride in the Everglades, but the really exciting thing for me was a kayaking trip on an inland bayou. It had been a few years since I thought I could get in and out of a kayak. We were in open top kayaks, and with a little help, I was able to get in and out. Getting in and out did mean walking in the water with the prosthetic foot, and the foot filled with water during the walk. It was very heavy on the way back to the hotel. Then I took off the leg and dumped, not realizing how much water there really was in it. Quite a bit, it turns out. Prosthetist said that fresh water probably won't hurt the foot (there are mechanical parts in it that move and shake as I walk), but if I was in salt water, I for sure needed it cleaned out. Anyway prosthetist, Sam, cleaned it up this morning as part of the whole "new leg" business, so I am good to go there. I am NOT going to white water, but I am looking forward to more float trips.
Among my SFW friends, I am the most unreasonable eater. A couple of them (much smaller than me to start with) are currently doing Weight Watchers (WW) - with great success - and a couple have done it in the past. So, my friends really encouraged me to more rational eating and I went to a WW meeting this week with one of them. Hopefully, this puts me back on a sane food plan and I can begin again, to work on removing those excess pounds.
I went off to Florida in the early recovery stages from a bout of walking pneumonia. I am almost done with it. I am heading to State College to work next week, and when I come home, I am planning to be fully recovered from the pneumonia so that I can go back to the gym.
And now I am off to an fiber art show at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. I have a friend with a most interesting quilt hanging in the show and I want to be there with her when the show opens. Time to spiff up and go.
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