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'The Best of Crutches' Top 4 List: How I Made a 'Pull Sock' at 6:30 a.m.  

Jennifer Latham Robinson

My transfemoral (above knee) prosthetic socket is a true suction fit, meaning there is nothing between my skin and the inner flexible socket.  Like many people who utilize this suspension design (how the prosthesis is attached to the body), I depend on a ‘pull sock’ for donning (the process of putting on the prosthesis).  The ‘pull sock’ is a double layer cone shaped sock made out of slippery parachute material.  I put my residual limb in the ‘big’ end of the cone and feed the narrow end through my suction valve hole at the end of the socket.  Then I just pull at the narrow end while the sock pulls my skin downward into the socket (hence, the name ‘pull sock’).  Once the entire sock is out of the valve hole, I apply the valve and I’m ready to go.  Prior to using a pull sock I toiled with an ace bandage, which doesn’t work nearly as well and is very rough on the skin.  

After my shower yesterday morning, I grabbed my prosthesis as usual and got ready to ‘pull in’.  I keep my ‘pull sock’ in my purse at all times, just in case I’m in a pinch outside of the house.  Mindlessly, my fingers dug around the bottom of my purse searching for the ‘pull sock’.  Oh no.  Suddenly I remembered where I left it.  Pool party at my in-laws’ house—the ‘pull sock’ carelessly left in a bathroom, in a house that is nearly an hour away from mine.

I contemplated just using crutches to go to work.  After all, I've done it before.  Then frustration set it.  It’s hard enough to get the kids ready in the morning WITH the free use of my hands.  Crutches would make that morning routine a whole lot more complicated.  I did use crutches exclusively for nearly my entire college career, due to an ill-fitting prosthesis I had at the time.  Why didn’t I get the fit corrected?  It’s hard to imagine now.  I really think it was an act of defiance.  In many ways, it felt liberating at the time for me not to use a prosthesis.  Sitting in the bathroom, I thought back to those college days without the leg.  Out of desperation, I quickly devised a mental list of the things I could do better with crutches, without the prosthetic leg:

·        Push-ups & hands stands (courtesy of incredible upper body strength)

·        Opening swinging doors with a karate kick (this could be accomplished by putting all my weight on the crutches while kicking my left leg at the door… usually while saying “HiYa”).

·        Sitting ‘criss-cross applesauce’.  (Note:  You can do this if you have a rotator at the knee on an above knee prosthesis.  However, I have never used a rotator).

·        Running really fast (for a visual on this, you should refer to the movie ‘The Dark Crystal’.  The scene you will be looking for is when the two main characters ride magnificent large rabbit-like creatures with incredibly long ‘stilt’ legs.  Those suckers could fly, and so could I with those forearm crutches.  (Note:  Many amputees can run with prosthetics... fast.  I'm not one of those people).

Still, the super powers on my impromptu ‘best of crutches’ list wasn’t going to help me get everyone out the door by 7:00 a.m.

After a short panic attack, I realized that I needed to move forward.  No ‘pull sock’.  Get over it.  It would have been wise to have a back-up, but alas, no such luck.  Hind sight is always 20/20.  I had been planning on getting a new 'pull sock' any day.  Anyone who uses these things knows that they don’t last long.  The parachute material is not the best at handling the stress of donning and once you get a small tear, it’s all over.  That tear becomes a gigantic hole.  As you mend the fabric, sewing the hole shut, the sock become smaller and smaller.  Soon, you can barely fit into it.  So… no ‘pull sock’. 

Then I remembered my conversation about ‘pull socks’ with a young man who used a myoelectric prosthesis.  He often lost his ‘pull sock’ and had come up with a handy solution (no pun intended).  Apparently, a garbage bag works too.  So, my husband generously retrieved a new garbage bag from under the sink.  It wasn’t easy, but it worked well enough to get me by until my new’ pull socks’ come in.  Yes, I’m getting two. 

 



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Comments

Marc Rohner : re: 'The Best of Crutches' Top 4 List: How I Made a 'Pull Sock' at 6:30 a.m. commented on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:47:31 PM
Hey jen its marc rohner we met last year at ACA peer group leader seminar. I like your article and agree on some things do better on crutches. its alos handy when you have a mouthy teenager to crack them in their shins when they same something inappropriate to someone. As for pull sock. I've also used a small amount of fast acting/absorbing hand lotion before. Apply just small amount and then before it absorbs into your skin slip yourself into your socket. I'm now trying to get into and use ottoBocks elavated vacum system. My prosthetist has nevermade a socket for an AKA using this system and asked me to be a test patient i said yes. BIG mistake its been 2 months and i'm still on crutches. Ottobock sending one f their engineers out next monday who said he can get the socket fit correctly andf me walking will see. Talk to ya later keep writn g good stuff.

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