Prosthetic Leg Study

In the Iraq and Afghanistan war over 220,000 women served and held positions such as flying helicopters, planes, driving trucks, serving as a officer, medic and gunners which took up ninety percent of the occupations in the military. Unfortunately over 600 servicewomen were wounded; over 135 lost their lives and as few as 24 servicewomen lost a limb or more (Cater, 2012, p. 1443-1444).

A voluntary study was done on six servicewomen of the Army or the Army National Guard. Out of the ten that were asked to participate was a woman with a prosthetic leg. The study was done to comprehend an understanding of the influences of an amputated leg on the women’s’ psychosocial health. The first part of the study was to interview the participants as well as gather information about each servicewoman’s experience in war. Volunteer Christine said, “you need to understand combat first before you can understand how we cope with the injuries.

Who I was and how I conducted myself before my injuries was crucial to how I chose to react” (Cater, 2012, p. 1445). Data was also collected through the volunteers’ blogs, journals, and transcriptions. The data created four tables. The first table included the background of each of the six participants. The second illustrated units of meaning, table 3 illustrated the similarities and differences the servicewomen had and table 4 combined the same barriers shared by the participants. From the data collected three factors came to be: coping skills, psychosocial adjustment, physical barriers, and defensive factors (Carter, 2012, p. 1446).
The importance of Tables 3 is the illustrated individual views of each participate towards their amputation. Jessica feared how society should perceive her. She refused to wear skirts or shorts, also Jessica worried that boys wouldn’t approach her for a date. Christine viewed her amputation as a duty to her country, was proud, and found no reason to hide. Sarah couldn’t even stand to look at her reflection in fear of what she should see. Sarah viewed herself as different, yet she eventually adjusted. Nicole commented that she just started going out, but when seen by others it decreased her confidence. Amy described her limb as a struggle especially the inability to run. Lisa stated, “For a while, I was scared to go out in public at all because I was afraid the public would see me as a freak” (Carter, 2012, p. 1447).
Table 4 described only one physical disability, phantom pain and the amputees’ pain tolerance (Carter, 2012, p. 1448). When the peripheral or central nervous system nerves encounter damage is considered neuropathic pain. The pain stimulates the receptors within the skin causing a pain signal to travel to the spinal cord, to the thalamus of the brain and on to the cortex. Amputees may store nerve memory here just as the storage of muscle memory. Therefore phantom limb pain is all too real for patients ("Pain: Hope Through Research: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)," 2001).
A majority of amputees describe having continuous phantom pain; however in the study only three of the six dealt with phantom pain (Cater, 2012, p.

1452). Christine stated, “I have phantom limb sensations all the time. For example, right now the balls of my feet and my toes are burning. They’ve got that really severe pins and needles feeling in them like they are just waking up from being asleep I can feel them all the time, 100 percent of the time. Every so often, it depends on how long I’ve been wearing my legs and how tired I am, I will get very severe phantom pains where it may feel like someone is pounding ten penny nails into the bones of my foot, my toenails are being pried off, or beads of molten lava are going down my veins” (Cater, 2012, p. 1448). Christine does not take medication for her pain, but tries to rub it out. If this did not work she endured the pain. Lisa on the other hand used the medication Lyrica to block the phantom pain. Lisa describes having an on curing pain if she does not take the drug (Cater, 2012, p.

1448).
Overall the six servicewomen overcame their amputations as well as the pain that came with it. This research however, is considered limited because of only six subjects were analyzed, a same racial group used, and the women served in the army. Being involved in the army, enduring war, and vigorous training eventually lead to determination over the stress and enhanced their spirit (Carter, 2012, p. 1453).