a new socket

If all goes well, today I’ll be getting a new socket for my prosthetic leg. This has been (too) long in coming, mostly because I’ve been traveling or living away from home for the past 6 months. Getting a new socket involves a series of ‘test socket’ fittings and numerous small adjustments to get the fit just right. Even a minor misadjustment can result in painful sores (or, as the case may be, ugly skin infections that result from such sores). So it’s important to be available for adjustments in the weeks that follow after getting the new socket.

Most of all, I’m looking forward to having a leg that doesn’t just “fall off” at random times. Though I think I’ve become rather adept at covering those moments that my limb spontaneously detaches from my body, it’ll be a relief not to have this as a constant concern…

One question that’s on the table for me again is whether to get ‘cosmesis’ (or an aesthetic, symmetric covering) on my leg. I go back and forth on this. I like letting my robotic innards show, but it draws a huge amount of attention in public and it also reinforces my disability in ways that make me uncomfortable. Added to that is the fact that clothes fit oddly when one leg has a normal-to-largeish diameter and the other has a 4″ calf. Perhaps I ought to go with the steampunk look, or go with a new 3-D print fabrication method?  I haven’t made up my mind yet…

For further reading, some of my older posts about my leg:
A Photo Tribute to a Well-Traveled Limb
I, Robot
With a Leg to Stand On
The Ocean & Me (where I discuss my ‘beach’ leg)

5 thoughts on “a new socket”

  1. G

    omg… the awesomeness of both of those links is mind-blowing!

    (steampunk is cool, but those 3-d print fabrication ones are just *stunning*)

  2. gs

    ==Though I think I’ve become rather adept at covering those moments that my limb spontaneously detaches from my body==

    Not therein lie somes stories that I, for one, would like to hear! This isn’t a challenge most of us readers face, or even witness, on a day-to-day basis. How does one adepting cover a leg falling off in public? I have a feeling that the way YOU do it is worth reading about.

  4. melissa

    The mental image of your leg falling off made me smile. For reasons I can’t explain. You could do a really cool tattoo leg…but that would be kind of limiting, fashion wise. I don’t know…I’ve always sort of liked the cyborg look on you. But that’s me.

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