I spent a few hours at the prosthetic place today, and finally, got my new "RAINBOW"
socket.
It fits tight. Good tight. Not perfect, but the best fitting socket I can remember, and this is number 11.
It has 2 air bladders. Both on the left side, one above the other. The top one will be for when my stump shrinks, and can be used instead of putting on more socks. This means I can make a plan for a shrinking stump without taking the leg off.
The lower bladder is for better feel. (proprioception) The socket was designed to be tight, but not over tight. It does exactly that.
If the bladders fail now, I could still walk quite a ways without pain. My last white socket with the two bladders I had put in, was such that, I needed to inflate the bladders to be able to use it. Those bladders took about 10 pumps each. My new socket takes 1 or two pumps till it is tight. That means my stump can shrink quite a bit before the bladders will become ineffective.
Bradley, Bi and I spent quite a bit of time adjusting the leg today. I finally told them to go stop fussing, because I couldn't find anything that they could possibly do, to make it any better. They have done a wonderful job.
It is a very clean and pretty socket, compared with my last one.


You can see them sticking out in the top picture.
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For my trip next week, to the States, airport security wants a letter from my doctors confirming I have had my leg amputated.
They say that, "Absence of a leg is not considered proof."
That statement gets lots of laughs.
Then I got online, and found that their concern was if a terrorist is willing to blow himself up, then he would also be willing to have a leg removed, so he could fill the empty socket with explosives. I guess a terrorist would be too stupid to also fake a letter from a Doctor.
I have a busy week. Appointments with the prosthestist, the Oncology lady, the Surgeon, blood tests, and x-rays.
I have not even thought about if any test is bad, and I have to cancel my flight. If that does happen, then loosing the money for the tickets will probably be the least of my worries.
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