Introduction
An amputation is a surgical procedure to remove all or part of an arm or leg (limb). After this surgery, it will take time for you to heal and to get used to living with the amputation. There are things you can do to help you adjust.
Living with an amputation can be challenging, but you can still live a long, productive life. It is often possible to do all of the activities you used to do.
How to manage lifestyle changes
Activity
Use and care for your prosthetic as told by your health care provider.
Return to your normal activities as told by your health care provider. Ask your health care provider what activities are safe for you.
Discuss all of your leisure interests with your health care provider and prosthetist. Changes can
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These issues are normal. When you encounter a challenge:
Be aware of any stress it may cause. Monitor yourself for symptoms of stress and identify what challenges cause the most stress for you.
Rethink the situation. Try to think realistically about stressful challenges rather than ignoring them or overreacting. Try to find the positives in a stressful situation rather than focusing on the negatives.
Where to find support:
Talking to others
Look for a local or online support group for people living with amputation.
Finances
Talk to your insurance company about what assistive devices are covered.
Some charities give away scholarships and medical equipment to those in need. Contact national or local amputee charities to find out if you are eligible. Military service men and women may be eligible for financial assistance or programs that support amputees.
Rehabilitation
A rehabilitation program can help you gain mobility and self-reliance. It involves working with a rehabilitation team that may include:
Physicians.
Physical and occupational therapists.
People who help fit you with a prosthetic (prosthetists).
Nurses.
Social workers.
Psychologists or psychiatrists.
Dietitians.
Follow these instructions at
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You have any changes in skin color. You have new blisters or sores. You develop warmth, redness, or swelling of your stump.
You have pus or a bad smell coming from your stump.
Managing pain
Work with your health care provider to manage any phantom limb pain. This may include:
Pain medicine.
Techniques that help to retrain the brain and nervous system (movement representation techniques). Relaxation techniques that use the mind and body to control pain. These often involve hypnosis, guided imagery, deep breathing, and muscle relaxation exercises.
Biofeedback. This involves using monitors that alert you to changes in your breathing, heart rate, skin temperature, or muscle activity, and using relaxation techniques to reverse those changes. Acupuncture. Sensory discrimination training. For this treatment, painless stimulation is applied to different parts of your stump and you describe what you feel.
Physical therapy involving the stump.
Eating and drinking
Work with a dietitian to develop an eating plan that helps you maintain a healthy body weight. This may include a balance of:
Fresh fruits and vegetables.
Whole grains.
Lean meats.
Low-fat
Alternatives would be prescription of different dose of PRN and regular pain medicines and alternative pain treatment such as implanted pain pumps, nerve block therapy, massage therapy, relaxation and guided imagery , chiropractic treatment and oncology rehabilitation so that level of pain can be minimized.
Today I am going to talk about the article “Amputees by Choice” by Carl Elliott. This topic is not about amputees in general but by people who want to cut off a healthy part of their body. Now you may ask, who in their right mind would want to do such a thing. Believe it or not, there is a condition called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). This is a mental disorder in which a person wants to amputate one or more of their healthy limbs. We then should ask, what motivates a person to want to amputate a healthy limb? There are couples of reasons or explanations for this disorder. First is that they are suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a condition in which the person believes that part of their body is diseased or ugly. The second explanation is psychosexual disorder call Acrotomophilia. This is a sexual attraction to an amputee. The last explanation is a mismatch between their bodies as they experience it.
I picked an article on the prosthetic limbs, which are controlled by your own thought. The unique part of this prosthetic is that It has 26 joints, is controlled by the person’s own mind and has the power to curl up to a incredible 45 pounds. Imagine being able to control a prosthetic just by thinking about the next move. The limb has been described as Modular, which gives them the power to accommodate anyone in particular that has either the hand missing to the whole entire arm. It can be also used as a surrogate arm for those who have suffered a stroke and lost movement of their own arm. This just an incredible part of science that getting develop and study by John Hopkins University.
Since the short story “The Return” was just discovered a few months ago, the author remains unknown; unknown until now that is. This paper will prove without a doubt that “The Return” was written by author, Alistair Macleod. The mother character in “The Return” shows resemblance to the female characters in other stories written by Macleod. Also the tense of the story is also the same as most of the stories Macleod had written. As “the return” is a story based around a family, just like many of Macleod’s stories,. After reading this essay, it will be clear and obvious that Alistair Macleod did write the short story “the Return.
Rehabilitation after amputation has changed significantly. It now includes a more in depth process and aftercare to ensure and a full recovery is achieved and reduces the potential for infections and complications. Patients are encouraged to take part in sport to aid them in their recovery and, with the use of specialized prosthetics, are readily available. It has also been said to help reduce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which, according to a study by Abeyasinghe 2012, suggested that 42.5% of lower limb amputees suffered with PTSD (Abeyasinghe, de Zoysa, Bandara, Bartholameuz, & Bandara,
Over the years scientists have noted many complaints of a strange form of pain called phantom limb pain. This pain is strange because it is located in an appendage that no longer exists. By many of the amputees the pain is described as totally unbearable. Phantom limb pain has even driven some victims crazy. For the amputee population this is a very real problem that definitely needs to be solved.
Although nothing can ever fully replace any part of our bodies, most people who have suffered the loss of a body part or who were born missing something that everyone else has and needs—like a foot or a hand—would agree that something is usually better than nothing. People have used all sorts of artificial devices probably from the beginnings of human history to help them compensate for the loss of a limb. Thus in very ancient times, the first and simplest prosthesis may have been a forked tree limb that was used as a crutch to help someone walk whose leg may have been badly damaged or lost in an accident or to a disease.
Imagine how much harder everyday life would be with a metal stub attached to where your limb was supposed to be. This is the everyday life of amputees. Throughout the United States there are nearly 2 million people with amputations. Prosthetics are a type of design that has allowed limbless people to function, by attaching a metal device to the needed socket. The device can help the person move and regain partial function in the missing limb. Research has gone into medicine to improve these procedures so people can regain function and stability. Unfortunately there is no special cure or magic that can automatically regrow ones personal limb. But, medicine and research is getting there. Fortunately there are an array of options science is experimenting with regarding limb replacement. Although while analyzing the different positions it’s a complicated decision to pick the “best” option. With improvements to prosthetics and new regenerative medicine, our world is making big decisions regarding these new technological advances. But, could there ever be a time where humans could regrow a limb? Or should we stick to the alternative we know is safe and works.. Prosthetics? Ultimately our world is forced to focus on the main question, what is the best possible way to help those who have lost a limb?
There are many negative misconceptions and stereotypes about others in today's society. Misconceptions and stereotypes lead to the unfair generalization of people and they are develop for many different reasons. In reality, most individuals in certain groups are not what society portrays, instead these people are the exact opposite than the generalized group. The generalizations of a specific group are not only degrading and ignorant, but it can cause a-lot of tension within the group and outside the group for many reasons. People’s judgment of others has led to many problems when in reality most of what people believe is not true. One specific group that is often ridiculed by people’s misunderstandings is amputees.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to have one or more of your limbs amputated? A prosthetic "replaces a body part lost as the result of injury, disease, or a birth defect" (Childress). Prosthetics have been used for more than 2,000 years. The most developments happened during World War II. Wars are the places where most casualties such as limb loss occur the most(Prosthetics). The main causes of limb loss of the people that are currently living is 45% from trauma, 53% from vascular disease, and less and 2% from cancer (view graph on next page). Vascular disease includes diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (Limb Loss Statistics). There are many steps taken to prepare a patient for a prosthetic limb. The first step is amputation.
The previous insert from William Lee Adams’ article, Amputee Wannabes, describes a 33-year-old man’s wish for amputation of his foot. There was nothing physically or medically wrong with this limb; John only stated that he did not feel comfortable with his own body and felt as though his foot was not a part of him. John’s leg was amputated above the knee, and he went on to describe that the operation resolved his anxiety and allowed him to be at ease in his own body (Adams, 2007).
All throughout high school I was a multi-sport athlete, participating in soccer, basketball, golf and cross country. Being an athlete has definitely impacted my life; when I graduate college I want to continue to be involved in the athletic environment and share my knowledge and experience with younger athletes. This is a main reason on why I want to pursue orthopedic physical therapy. Orthopedic physical therapists are licensed professionals who possess the special certification in orthopedic physical therapy. They focus mainly on restoring function to the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic physical therapists conduct examinations on patients who have either suffered injuries or have innate conditions or diseases that can cause pain and cause inability for some physical functions (“How to become”). Once they examine the patient and have a feel for what type of rehabilitation he or she should go through, they create a plan for their rehabilitation. During the period of the patient’s treatment, the physical therapists, at various times, keep track and take notes of the patient’s progress. In order for them to know whether or not the patient should continue or if they should revise the treatment plan, they must take notes. Not
Relaxation techniques manage arousal levels, help calm nerves
You often think that everything boils down to deadlines. If only the tick of the clock is much slower and if deadlines don’t exist, everything would be much easier. Sometimes you blame your failures to somebody or to a circumstance where in fact, the real problem is just the way you perceive stress.
The second thing you can do would be to take a break. You can take a break by hanging out with your friends, listening to music, or taking a nap.