My last post mentioned some pain coming from the distal anterior tibia. I finally solved that. It wasn't actually the bone striking the prosthesis -- it was the gel liner pulling the skin taut over the bone. My solution was to roll on a nylon sheath first, and then roll on the gel liner. I know this completely defeats the purpose of the gel liner, which is to prevent skin shearing forces by adhering to the skin. Now, the gel liner can slide over the bony prominences, but it still does its job of preventing shearing. The bottom line is that my discomfort went away pretty much immediately, and hasn't come back. Now that I have a new socket, things have probably changed enough that I no longer need to do this. (EDIT: it's true! I'm now doing just fine without the nylon under the gel.) I'm reluctant to try. If I can walk 4 miles with no problem, I'm doing something right.
I'm on my second temporary socket (still using the Ohio Willow Wood Fusion carbon fiber foot) which fits much better than the original. There is some excessive upward pressure on my patellar tendon, which I'll have addressed at my next checkup on Wednesday. I still don't understand why the trim lines on below-knee sockets have to come up so high (i.e,. to the top of the knee cap.) It's annoying. My old legs never had it, and I did just fine. My last leg (before the Ertl) started out that way, and I told my prosthetist to saw it off after about a day.
Anyway, some pictures of the new temp prosthesis, the Alpha gel liner, and my leg.
Are you ever going to update your blog?
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