I watched a program on UWTV about amputees. There was some good stuff in it. One speaker, an orthopedic surgeon talked about different types of patients.
1. Patients who obviously needed amputation to save their lives, or health. In this section he stated that education was the most important part. That it could take weeks to inform a patient and let the patient digest the information.
2. Patients who may or may not benefit from an amputation. A large part of the discussions the surgeon has with these patients revolve about the meaning of health. He stated that many patients when given the option to get an amputation or salvage their limb, they would opt to salvage in expectation that they would get full use of their limb. They expected that they could become what they were before the injury.
The surgeon now says that he has to make it clear that “salvage doesn’t equal normal”. Patients would have to confront and re-adjust their sense of healthy. They either have to accept that their healthy body includes a limb that functions in new way, or that their healthy body now includes prosthetics and as they say in the art world, it contains negative space.
Negative space comes into play when you’re talking about phantom pains that occur. Phantom pains really fascinate me. I should read more about that.
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The surgeon also talked about how when you make an amputation you need to curve the end of the bone you cut off and also arrange the flesh so that it can heal in a way that pads the amputation… also making sure that all of the nerves get put in ok places… He said if nerves are placed to close to arteries or veins patients will feel the constant throb of blood pumping through their body.
Tags: amputation, health, orthopedic surgery, Patient Psychology
