Care of Stumps
Over the years I have had many sores and infections in my arm and leg stumps. I hope you may find some of the remedies I used helpful.
Cleanliness
There is no substitute for washing and drying your stumps before you put on your artificial bits and the same routine again at night when you peal them off.
After wearing them all day long you do get sweaty and I use warm soapy water for both my stumps and also for the new silicon sheath that I roll on to my left stump.
Hard skin
I have found that infections often start when the pressure exerted on a stump caused by putting all your weight on it, compresses the skin and creates a hard patch similar to a corn (this occurs on arm stumps as well as legs) which, as it builds up, then presses further into your flesh causing discomfort and can create an infection.
I stopped that happening completely by regularly using a square flat pumice stone* to remove this hard skin. I do this in the bath with warm water and lots of soap, you can feel when you have worn away the rough bits.
This really did the job for me. Do be careful not to be too enthusiastic with the pumice stone and go through the skin surface!
* This is a very light porous rock formed from solidified lava, any good chemist should have them - avoid the artificial varieties I found they were useless!
_______________________________________________________
Sores
Artificial appliances, no matter how well fitted they are will, if you are really active, rub the skin off at times.
On such occasions, to avoid immobility, I use plaster strapping* stretched and stuck directly over the sore patch onto the skin.
Then, to stop it sticking to a stump sock or sheath, I cover it in talcum powder.
*Usually a roll of Elastoplast strapping without any centre dressing.
After a couple of days covered in this way the patch is usually healed underneath, remove the plaster (gingerly!) and you`re ready give it some more abuse.
Return to Adaptability page