Socks

 These socks aren't for your feet!

When you picked up your prosthesis you were issued socks, and you probably wondered when you were going to use them and why you would need so many. Now some of you may still be wondering this and some of you may be laughing and going "yep that was me, but not anymore." So here's the information that you probably heard and didn't catalog while getting your awesome new leg.

You probably have 2-3 different thicknesses of socks, and it does matter what thickness you grab. Depending on the manufacturer and your prosthetist you may have 1ply, 2 ply and 4 ply; you may have 1ply, 3 ply and 5 ply; or you may have only two of these which may mean you most likely don't have a 1 ply sock. So your next question may be, when do I use these socks? 

Here we go...you may need to use socks if: 

1) you are getting pressure/pain on the end of your residual limb

2) your prosthetic is starting to rotate on your residual limb (typically noticed when the foot is no longer going the same direction as when you were at the prosthetists office)

3) you feel like your leg can move inside your socket and it is not as fitted as the day you received your leg.

4) if you have a transfemoral socket (aka above the knee) than your first clue may be that what was "comfortable" before is now inching too far up into your groin

5) there may be others and feel free to leave them in the comments as everyone experiences and describes socket fit differently.

If you feel you fit any of the above scenarios than start with your thinnest ply sock. You will don your liner as always and then apply the sock over the liner, if you place your sock under your liner you decrease how your leg is held on and this could cause your prosthesis to fall off. You should have a comfortable fit when you don your leg, it may feel a little tight but it shouldn't cause pain or feel like a torniquet has been applied. 

Below is one example of a sock. This one would be used with pin lock system or a lanyard based system. 

If you have any questions or concerns always call your prosthetist as they have more direct infomation regarding your socket and supplies.

Introductions

I should probably introduce myself and give you a little more information about who I am. My name is Dana Cross and I am a physical therapist who works with individuals that have experienced limb loss. I graduated from Ithaca College in 2002 with my undergrad and Sept 2003 with my Master's degree. I began in Sports Medicine in April of 2004. I started working with individuals post amputation back in 2010 after my office received a phone call wondering if we could treat a client post transtibial amputation (aka: a below knee amputation). I was willing to go down the path of learning and worked with a local prosthetist to learn more about what the device was going to be able to do as we worked through general conditioning. Since that day 12.5 years ago, I have worked with over 100 individuals post limb loss. Some have lost their arms and/or legs due to accidents, circulation issues, infections or diabetes and while some goals are the same for most people all patients have some unique goals such as needing to be able to get on and off of bus to go on trips with friends or some have a need/desire to return to driving. Whatever the goal there is a way to return to an active life, sometimes we just need to look at a different way of getting to that goal. I also facilitate a support group for individuals post amputation and we had presentations about any number of topics, from return to driving to how to be prepared for extreme weather to what to know about vacation plans.

Outside of the clinic I am a mom of 3 teenagers and yes, my hair is starting to go white. They are all in high school for this one school year (freshman, sophomore and senior), participating in cross country, track, marching band as well as martial arts. I spend a lot of time on the road transporting the 2 younger ones as well as going to watch their activities. Life is busy and I wouldn't have it any other way right now. But I do understand how a life altering diagnosis can change things. I was diagnosed back in 2019 with an autoimmune disorder that requires life-long medication management, which I am thankful for. The alternative would be a disabling flare up of symptoms that would force me to leave my job and be in pain daily. I have missed 2 months of work when a flare up happened back in the summer of 2020 and I wasn't sure that I could return to my job, the fear of not knowing what the future holds or maybe not being able to do the work that I love scared me. Thankfully we found medications that would work and I could resume my job, but I monitor symptoms daily and I get bloodwork every 3-4 months.

I have multiple ideas for posts and will try to make the titles as clear as possible for easy topic searches but please if you have ideas let me know I want to provide information that will be helpful and applicable to those who take time to read my blog.