How does the prosthesis change Your life?
Using a prosthesis will certainly lead to a change in anyone’s life.Changes are greater than what a person having suffered a recent amputation could imagine.
There is a wide range of possibilities and assistive devices which ensure an independent and normal life even with an amputated limb.
What could a person with an amputated limb could expect and what could he/she do on their own?
Amputation is a Hurdle, Prosthetics Will Help You
Not having or losing one or more limbs is undoubtedly a difficult change in one’s life.This leads to a change in worldview, changes when dealing with daily tasks and in communication with others. Lifestyle changes. One needs to learn again how to cope with daily and more specialised tasks.
The new assistant - the prosthesis – needs particular attention, exploration and discovery of its capabilities. This re-discovery and “communication” take time. But the more time the patient spends with his/her new assistant, the more he/she learns to appreciate it and want it and the better he/she understands its usefulness and assistance. Prosthetics help to an incredible extent if they are chosen and attached correctly. Your need to live an active life with the prosthesis and should not think that once You start wearing the prosthesis, it will automatically improve Your condition by itself.
Your entourage is of decisive importance when dealing with Your new tasks and challenges. Without the support or at least well-intentioned compassion of the closest ones, successful rehabilitation will be very difficult, even impossible. Above all, You need to cope with the same daily and special tasks as before the amputation but now with one limb less. In fact, You need to build the relationships with Your surroundings all over again: how do I perceive myself - how do others perceive me; how do I think I can be useful - how do others appreciate me; what do I think I can do - what do I actually do.
At the outset, these questions might sound depressing. But with time, it will become clear to You that everything gets back to normal or improves and that Your value as a person has not decreased but is the same and has even increased.
This is because suddenly, You would begin to appreciate experiences not heeded by people who have not undergone an amputation. Clearly, You will need to deal with Your daily routine and to put in a lot more effort and dedicate more time to the same tasks.
This new way of life is difficult but unlike in the past, high-tech prosthetics are available today to people with amputation to surmount this loss as much as possible.
It is also worth understanding what opportunities prosthetics offer today and what could be expected.
It is true for all type of leg amputations - for the hip as well as below-the-knee amputations - that the prosthesis cannot perform active movements. Every prosthesis on a leg constitutes a passive system that reacts only to external motion and does not perform motion independently.
Aside from this, a leg prosthesis cannot lead You to experience sensation.
Pressure, heat and other sensations in the leg cannot be restored.
It is also important to know that prostheses cannot be permanently attached to the body. In general, they need to be put on in the morning and put off in the evening.
Sometimes You need to put on and put off the prosthesis several times during the day, which is associated with additional tasks (washing the stump and maintenance of the prosthesis).
