What is Amputees
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy ...
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Advice Please- RE: my father-in-law
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My father-in-law is a recent amputee. He had a problem with a wound not healing on his leg, went into the hospital to perform a minor surgery, but then (except for him dying) everything went wrong. Now, almost two months later, he lost his leg above the knee. It was a circulatory problem as well as an "aspergillus" infection.
He is 86 years old; a WW2 vet and while full of gumption and love of life (and his mental capacity fine) he's not in the best of health- lots of little things that amount to big problems (like losing his leg). I belong to another support group here and have found everyone is supportive and informative, so I thought I'd ask you folks in this Support Group for advice. I've never know anyone who is an amputee and sure could use some advice. He's a fighter, no doubt about it. While at first he was horrified at the prospect of losing his leg, now he is looking forward to getting well. He said to my son that he is looking forward to snorkeling in Kauai! (my husband made a joke about him swimming in circles) but that seems overly optimistic- he could hardly do that before he lost his leg. He was just transferred to a nursing home from a hospital/rehab facility. Realistically, what are your thoughts on his recovery aspects? It's been a big deal that he is not in a hospital bed, and using a wheelchair. He was fitted for a prothesis. Is there really any hope that he can use to use one at this stage of his life? His upper body is not that strong. What is your advice on how we should deal with him? Do we discuss it? And what should we say? I realize my questions are very general, but we are so new into this- it is all a learning situation. Thank you for any advise! Posted on 11/05/09, 11:11 pm |
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The veterans hospitals are well equiped to deal with this problem. If you are not using the vets then my best advice is to 1. Make sure you have a good prosthetist that is experienced with AKA's. 2. Get the best Physical Therapist you can find, also experienced with AKA's and 3. make sure that his doctor, PT, and prosthetist discuss this case together and that everybody is on the same page. You are going to have to rely on the professionals here. We all have a chance to do well with the proper guidance.
Good luck and hang around on this site and ask as many questions as you can think of. Peter 
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From what you describe of him having "gumption" my bet is he's got a darn good chance of getting to a good quality of life recovery level. It is, as peterk wrote, a matter of finding and working with a really good prosthesist and putting in the time to learn to use the prosthetic well.
It takes both of those factors to reach a place HE feels "recovered". It won't happen immediately, but it takes "TNT" (Time 'N' Teamwork). (The secret to not swimming in circles is, use the arm opposite the amputation a bit more than the other, to compensate for the lost propelling effect of the missing leg...) (Joking!) Hoping his recovery goes smoothly!
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Thank you for your wise and helpful comments!
But what's AKA? Sorry, new to this. Should he use the services provided as a Vet, or private providers (if he has a choice) - is one considered superior? There is the Vets Home near us in Yountville, (CA) and I know there is a long waiting list to get in to stay there (at least for people in his situation), but I'll check out if there are other services provided to Vets not living there. How do we know if he's a good prosthetist? Questions to ask? Someone to ask? A man came to the rehab hospital in Marin to fit him, and Howard (father-in-law) liked him a lot, and said his area also serves our home in Napa, so Howard was happy to hear that. Thanks again for your help!
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Sorry for the lingo. It means Above Knee Amputation. So below the knee is called BKA. That will start you on your new vocabulary.
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