Wife Amputee Skin issues!

[jmartin99]

My wife had a leg amputation, below-knee, in 2001. She has had a prosthesis since then. We met in 2004 and for years had no issues at all with her prosthesis. The last few years have been VERY different. Lately, everytime she changes to a new liner due to the old one being wore out, she scrubs the new lines very well but within a day or two develops patches of "burns" where the skin turns bright red and is VERY sore!! It also has a very strong pungent odor making me believe it is infected! She keeps the area clean and dry and even went to a dermatologist about 6-8 months ago who gave her two creams to use for two weeks each, alternating.

Can anyone suggest anything to prevent this from happening whenever it is time to change to a new liner?

Thanks!

Jeff 

[stonecutter]

I'd get checked out by a doctor or at the very least the prosthetist. They usually have a good handle on what is infection and what is reaction.

Does your wife have any allergies?

I suffered from occasional cellulitis. When I had it - antibiotics were the way to go and one time only IV antibiotics for 7 days made it go away. I went from being fine in the morning to running a major fever and landing in the ER by suppertime. So - don't mess around with possible infections - get it looked at...

[Ann]

Jul 15, 2019 10:19:29 GMT -7 jmartin99 said:

My wife had a leg amputation, below-knee, in 2001. She has had a prosthesis since then. We met in 2004 and for years had no issues at all with her prosthesis. The last few years have been VERY different. Lately, everytime she changes to a new liner due to the old one being wore out, she scrubs the new lines very well but within a day or two develops patches of "burns" where the skin turns bright red and is VERY sore!! It also has a very strong pungent odor making me believe it is infected! She keeps the area clean and dry and even went to a dermatologist about 6-8 months ago who gave her two creams to use for two weeks each, alternating.

Can anyone suggest anything to prevent this from happening whenever it is time to change to a new liner?

Thanks!

Jeff 

I would say to get the skin issues, and any possible allergies properly checked out, also to get the 'fit' of the prosthesis checked out, because my experience is that sockets that fit differently can sometimes cause issues with the liners. Also, she probably already does this, but to really clean the new liner before she first uses it.
The other thing maybe is - if this problem with the liner is really becoming an issue, could she have a prosthesis without a liner?  liners seem to be obligatory part of the kit nowadays, but back in the day we never used to use them.