Post by allenuk on Aug 29, 2009 6:51:16 GMT -7
I post this without much comment. It was put up on the Limbless Association's forum by a guy who says he makes his own sockets (eh?). It sounds reasonable to me!
QUOTE:
Hi Guy's,
I worked in two Hospitals in Melbourne as a senior Tech When i wanted a new leg i would have one of the prosthetist do a cast and then i would make the check socket. Check sockets are hard, as you know, and there is no soft liner. I would wear only one woolen sock and sometimes walk on it all day at work getting rid of every niggling kink by heating the plastic and relieving the pressure. If you can walk on a hard socket with no pain then a socket with a liner will be like puting on a slipper, its as simple as that.
In Melbourne Technicians used to do a Uni course but now there isn't a course so the hospitals are getting unskilled people to make limbs and the standards are really poor. Some of the work i have seen here is diabolical and the poor patients dont know any better because they dont know what the standard is. I have heard a prosthetist say to a patient, who was in pain, " your an Amputee, get used to it" which was his answer for his own incompetance. No Amputee should have to put up with pain, if your not in pain when without a limb why should you be in pain when wearing one. It clearly means the limb is placing preasure where it shouldn't.
Any BK out there should know that 80%-90% of your weight should be on your patella bar which is just below the knee cap, if its not, the limb will give you major grief, and it will feel like your circulation is being shut off, (man, that is painfull). A simple test is to place your good knee on the edge of something smooth like a low coffee table and put all your weight on the area below your knee cap so just your knee cap is on the table, you'll be suprised how much weight that area can take.
The rest of a BK socket is mainly for containment with small weight bearing areas such as the popliteal(back of the knee) and the medial flare(flat part of the tibia). I dont know of any Amp who likes to weight bear on the end of thier stump or any preasure on thier fib head(bony knob on the lateral side of your stump). Next time any of you have a check socket made ask if you can go for a walk and go for a long walk down the road, you'll really iron out the sore spots and it will show as nice big red spots on your stump so the prosthetist cant give you any B*****IT. Get it right at this stage and the definitive socket should work out better because its easier to modify the check socket as oposed to a finished product.
I hope this helps some of you guys out.
REN.
END QUOTE
Just one question on this, Ted. Is it true that so much of the weight is born on the patella bar? If so I shall pay more attention to my knee.
Allen.
QUOTE:
Hi Guy's,
I worked in two Hospitals in Melbourne as a senior Tech When i wanted a new leg i would have one of the prosthetist do a cast and then i would make the check socket. Check sockets are hard, as you know, and there is no soft liner. I would wear only one woolen sock and sometimes walk on it all day at work getting rid of every niggling kink by heating the plastic and relieving the pressure. If you can walk on a hard socket with no pain then a socket with a liner will be like puting on a slipper, its as simple as that.
In Melbourne Technicians used to do a Uni course but now there isn't a course so the hospitals are getting unskilled people to make limbs and the standards are really poor. Some of the work i have seen here is diabolical and the poor patients dont know any better because they dont know what the standard is. I have heard a prosthetist say to a patient, who was in pain, " your an Amputee, get used to it" which was his answer for his own incompetance. No Amputee should have to put up with pain, if your not in pain when without a limb why should you be in pain when wearing one. It clearly means the limb is placing preasure where it shouldn't.
Any BK out there should know that 80%-90% of your weight should be on your patella bar which is just below the knee cap, if its not, the limb will give you major grief, and it will feel like your circulation is being shut off, (man, that is painfull). A simple test is to place your good knee on the edge of something smooth like a low coffee table and put all your weight on the area below your knee cap so just your knee cap is on the table, you'll be suprised how much weight that area can take.
The rest of a BK socket is mainly for containment with small weight bearing areas such as the popliteal(back of the knee) and the medial flare(flat part of the tibia). I dont know of any Amp who likes to weight bear on the end of thier stump or any preasure on thier fib head(bony knob on the lateral side of your stump). Next time any of you have a check socket made ask if you can go for a walk and go for a long walk down the road, you'll really iron out the sore spots and it will show as nice big red spots on your stump so the prosthetist cant give you any B*****IT. Get it right at this stage and the definitive socket should work out better because its easier to modify the check socket as oposed to a finished product.
I hope this helps some of you guys out.
REN.
END QUOTE
Just one question on this, Ted. Is it true that so much of the weight is born on the patella bar? If so I shall pay more attention to my knee.
Allen.
