Thursday, August 23, 2007

Puffball and Champ

I have two legs, two quite different legs. Puffball is the shorter. She was greatly torn up by the train and was the one that took all the skin grafts. She's also been the site of the tunnelling wounds. She's not as strong. They used to wrap her up in a bunch of gauze and then put a sort of mesh "hat" on her in tge hospital which made her look like a round puffball mushroom to me. Hence her name. Well, that and the fact that she was so ugly to me that I needed to make her appealing in some way.
Champ sometimes feels like the sister to the prodigal leg. Puffball gets fussed over and cheered on; Champ just steadily goes on. She's been wearing a shrinker sock for 5 or 6 weeks, and is on a temporary prothesis. She will graduate to a vacuum socket--Puffball will never get there because teh skin is so thin. Champ is a nice clean amputation, nowhere near as ugly or shocking as her sister. Although she donated some skin to her sister, so there's been some angry red.
The Donations are done by a sort of cheese slice tool that takes a very thin layer off the donor site and puts in on the recipiant site. It's kinda of gross and scary to think about, but it's also amazing. Last I remember hearing about grafts is the bad old days when they took it off your back or buttocks and took the entire skin. this is obviously an improvement.

3 comments:

Shell said...

Hey girl... sorry I havent been here in a few days... I was in a car accident but I'm fine..

I hope you don't relegate Puffball to never being able to be fitted.. technology advances all the time.. I know its hard to stay positive but please know I send positive thoughts daily even when I cant come and check on you... so catch em and put em in your pocket.. Love ya.. Shell

Chukka said...

Puffball can be fitted, but as current tech stands, not with a vacuum socket. However there is a procedure of putting balloons under the skin and giving them weekly injections of water, gradually streching the skin so that there's enough to cover the bone. I've only talked about it with my prothitist, not a doctor so I don'tknow if it would work for Puffball and me.

Shell said...

Well lets just hope that puff ball gets the water ballon treatment.. I'm so glad your looking into answers instead of just accepting that your screwed.. you are a very positive person. With your attitude you will be mobile and on the move real soon. (((hugs)))