Post-amputation

How to Reduce Amputee Depression This is advice from one amputee to another. How to reduce amputation depression. These are practical tips divided into physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of depression. Here is how to reduce amputee depression.  Depression is anger turned inward. Here are some ways to deal with this emotion. You are…

Reducing Your Significant Other’s PTSD There are many ways to describe the stress and emotional pain that people go through being a caretaker. Physicians call it the caretaker’s syndrome, although it is not a medical disorder. It has other names like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Caretaker Stress Disorder, and even Caretaker Martyr Disorder, a rather…

Valentine’s Day Reconsidered   It’s Valentine’s day, and so dating and falling in love is on everyone’s mind. Let’s exclude a dozen roses, chocolates, and a hallmark card crew that have the holiday all covered, or so they think. Being an amputee may make it harder to enjoy this holiday. When I started to research…

How Not to Become a Manic Depressive After Your Amputation So many amputees have such intense feelings after their amputations that they could be misdiagnosed as manic depression. Current psychiatric research has found that sixty-nine percent of patients are misdiagnosed with Manic Depression or Bipolar disorders. More than one-third stay misdiagnosed for over ten years.…

On The Joy of Walking Again The goal of any amputation recovery is to get back on your feetand walk again. Frederic Gros wrote a book that reinforced the joy of meandering by describing the way several inspiring philosophers expressed their appreciation of the psychological effects of walking: Thoreau, Nietzsche, and Kant.   Gros explains…

Make Your Bodily Consciousness Grow a New Leg Ask any amputee, and they all will tell you that you can’t grow a new one. The point of this article is that if you wear your prosthesis long enough, your consciousness will accept it as if it was a new leg. A prosthesis is simply a…

Resolving  Anger About Your Amputation There is really a band calling themselves the “Angry Amputees” and have a Facebook page. Dalty, their lead vocalist is actually an amputee. He had lost both legs and fingers. He started the band to deal with his anger. His ability to resolve it and carry on should be an…

Self-quarantine One Leg at a Time   We are at the beginning of what promises to be a long, pandemic summer. Coronavirus cases are still climbing in nineteen states.  Second, to wearing a mask self-quarantining is one of the few ways we have of protecting ourselves and maintaining control of our lives. As an amputee,…

Top Advancements in Prostheses in 2020 Consciously controlled limbs 3D printing See-through designs Bionic arms Nerve detectors Similar to bionic limbs, nerve detectors control the prosthetic, utilizing the user’s mind to think they are actually moving the limb. The technology behind it operates via spinal motor neurons, instead of just muscle, like a bionic arm.…

Journaling improves amputation recovery Journaling helps in amputation recovery. You don’t know what journaling can do for your amputation till you try it. It puts a progression to your thoughts. You see the change in much more detail. By reflecting on things you wrote in the past, you see how much things have changed. Journaling…

Beating Amputation Phantom Pain Ask any amputee who has dealt with phantom pain. Their goal is beating amputation phantom pain. You know phantom pain when you feel it. It comes from where your limb used to be. The sensation starts as discomfort. It is a real feeling coming from the missing limb. It might be…

Unlocking the Secrets of Being an Amputee Spouse   For some time now I have felt a gentle nudge from the universe to write a book about our experience when my husband suffered a medical emergency that changed our lives forever. It has taken me nearly three years to get to a place where I…

Amputee Skills Reduce Pandemic Fatigue Syndrome Almost everyone is unusually anxious because of COVID-19. However, being in a constant state of anxiety and stress will not do you any good. After all, stress is known to affect our immune system.  So, what should we do? We can try coping with anxiety and building mental resilience by…

What is Fall Prevention? What is Fall Prevention? you ask. Identifying places and behaviors that can easily result in a loss of balance is called fall prevention. The more you take control of this process, the more confident you feel about returning to your-pre amputation lifestyle. If you haven’t been taught and warned about the…

How to Reduce Your Amputee Anxiety What Causes Amputee Anxiety Sixty-four percent of recent amputees suffer from anxiety. Many of them find they are overwhelmed by that fear. There are some specific triggers that the newly amputated face that is unique. Amputation Anxiety starts with the realization that your body will drastically change, and your…

Using your Amputee Skills to Cope with the Pandemic These days, we all have to accept the anxiety inherent in living with the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19. If there were a way to dispel all anxious feelings, I’d tell you, but there isn’t. The one exception might be someone who could summon such a degree…

Why Do You Call Yourself Disabled? Able or Disable You must do two things before you can honestly answer that question. You must realize the difference between disabled and abled. Not a silly distinction but it is a concrete distinction. Are you disabled because you feel safe in your wheelchair? Do you obsess on things…