 Are you joining? Are you gonna, oh, she's gonna be leading the video today. I hope you guys don't mind this angle because this is, this is how I'm gonna be talking to you. Go on. Say no, mommy. Go on. No, it's not what I asked. Hello there, my beautiful, talented, lovely internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me and Sophie here today. It took me a moment to get her to actually lay down behind me and not take the spotlight. Mommy needs the spotlight, silly. Today, I'm gonna be answering the question of how often do amputees wear prosthetics at home? This is a question I never thought about before becoming an amputee myself. I sort of just assumed if someone has a prosthetic leg, they have a leg. Okay, so I thought about it in the same way that I had two meat legs at one point in my life. But as I began life as an amputee and I talked to other amputees, I realized I was very mistaken. So how often do I keep this sucker on? By the way, before we dive in, if you wanna give this video a thumbs up or subscribe to this channel, I'd be greatly appreciated. It does help support the channel. And if you like the video, it would mean a lot to me. A huge thank you also goes out to all my patrons over on Patreon for continuing to support this channel. I'll say a few words about Patreon at the end, but in the meantime, to each and every one of you supporting me, thank you so much. I always feel powerful when I'm holding a prosthetic leg, just able to wave it around like a weapon. I don't know what that's about. So I'm gonna answer this question for myself, how often I actually wear my prosthetic leg at home. But I'm first gonna talk about a few reasons why amputees might not wear their prosthesis 24-7. Number one, these things, though they are fantastic and so well engineered. I mean, look at that. It's pretty cool. They are not perfect and they are not comfortable all the time for long periods of time. I know some amputees who wear their legs pretty much all day every day with no problems and that's absolutely amazing. But for a lot of us, there are points that start to rub against the carbon fiber and don't feel good or there's pressure that builds up that doesn't feel awesome. And beyond that, it's really recommended that you take your leg off a couple of times a day and actually check your skin to make sure that there are any unknown issues that you're walking around on. Make sure that there aren't blisters forming or anything that could be an infection or anything like that. So my shepherd is guarding my bed against the cat jumping up on it. They have a great relationship, but the shepherd instinct comes out every once in a while. And even if someone is comfortable wearing their leg all day, like they have no problems, it feels fantastic. I'd really love to know someone like that. Maybe they do exist. It's still highly recommended that you stop a couple times during the day, actually take your leg off, take the liner off and check your skin to make sure that there aren't irritations or blisters or issues forming that could develop into infections or anything of that nature. So even if you do wear your leg a lot, you still need to be taking it off and checking to just make sure. Now I will say I could be a little bit better about this, but I don't feel anything wrong. I don't think to check. So sometimes I'll set up timer on my phone to be like, just take it off for a second and make sure everything still looks good, especially if I'm being especially active that day. So how often do I, as an amputee, wear this puffy right here? So for me, this is gonna vary day to day. Some days I wake up and I'm a little more sore and so I might use my eye walk instead of my prosthetic leg for half the day. If I have to be out and about a lot or standing on a lot, I'll keep it on for a few hours, but then I'll usually take it off as soon as I can because I get really sore being on it for hours. If I'm home all day, I'll definitely still put it on. I know that there are some amputees who won't put their prosthetic legs on really at all if they're at home. They'll just keep them off at all costs unless they have to go out in public. But for me, getting around my house with two sets of stairs and just trying to get things done, tasks done, it is a lot easier for me to keep it on. If I'm sitting down to chill and watch Netflix for a few hours, I'll definitely take it off. But the one caveat of that is putting my leg back on takes a minute. It's not immediate. It doesn't take a significant amount of time, but it is effort to get my leg back on, get it adjusted and get moving in it. So to be able to take it off if I'm relaxing somewhere, I have to really think ahead. I make sure that I have water near me in case I'm thirsty. Am I gonna be hungry in the next couple hours? Do I wanna make sure I have a snack nearby or something like that? Is the remote within reaching distance if I'm feeling especially lazy? Do I need to go to the bathroom before I take this off because I don't have to hop or get it back on to go to the bathroom? There are just a lot of little decisions throughout the day that you need to make. Considering all the ups and downs that I've had with trying to get a prosthetic leg, I'm really happy to say that most days I wear it of my waking hours, I would say probably 60, 70%, which is pretty cool. There are definitely exceptions to that. Like I said, there are some days where my leg is swollen or it hurts or it's sore and I can't wear it at all. And I just skip those days. I just use crutches or an eye walk or I try to stay stationary. I will say for sure, the more activity that I'm doing in a day usually decreases the hours that I'm on it. For instance, a couple of weekends ago, Bren and I went on a pretty difficult hike, which was awesome. And as soon as I got in the car, I ripped it off and just let my leg try to heal from the soreness that existed because of all that activity. So another reason why I might take it off and leave it off is if I am experiencing some kind of discomfort, I may ice my nubbin, my residual limb for a little while. There's this one piece of hair that just wants to do its own thing. And I ain't havin' it, I ain't, I ain't havin' it. An interesting quandary that came up for me when I started really being able to wear my prosthesis around is what do I do when I'm in public, like before the quarantine? If I'm in public and I'm sitting down at a coffee shop to work for a couple hours, how weird would it be if I just took my leg off and sat it down next to me? On a scale of one to 10, how much would I terrify the children? If I'm on an airplane, sitting with my legs bent at that angle for a long period of time, even an hour or two, is really uncomfortable. I don't wanna be wearing my leg on a plane, but can I take it, can I take my leg off on a plane? And I'll be honest, it took me a minute to come to the realization that, you know what, this might look a little weird, this might look different for people, and also that's okay. I was really concerned with what people would think about me. If they saw me on a plane taking my leg off and putting it in the overhead bin, which is fantastic, or if I'm sitting at a coffee shop and my leg is sitting next to me, I was afraid of what people would think, and then I realized that that's not a fear I have to have. It's gonna be different for people. It might be a double take sort of situation, but if it's gonna make me more comfortable, there's absolutely no reason why I shouldn't do that. In fact, it's pretty normal to take your leg off if it's not feeling good. Granted, it does come as a shock to some people, but that's okay. Some people have asked me if I sleep with my leg on, which I think is a very valid question. The answer is no, never. And I have taken one nap where I was too tired to take my leg off, so I just plopped down on the couch and slept, but sleeping in a prosthetic leg would feel really, really uncomfortable. You're working with a piece of metal on the bottom of your limb, and more than that, it's sealed in. Your leg is, at least mine is, sealed in, it's suctioned in. There's not a lot of airflow. There's a lot of moisture that can accumulate, and sleeping in that for like eight hours is really not healthy. So taking your leg off, cleaning everything like you need to at the end of every day is really, really, really vital. There are definitely some days that I wish I could just sleep in my leg and not go through the hassle of having to take it off and all that, but through a night, I have never actually done that. There's our monkey. Do you see her? She's the elusive monkey. She's not on camera very much. She likes lurking in corners and pondering secrets at the universe. So something that I personally found really important to remember in the last couple years is that this looks different for absolutely everyone. The answers that I'm going to give you to a question are not gonna be the same answers that another baloney amputee are gonna give you. They may come close and some people they may match identically, but everyone's journey through amputation is very, very different. Some people have extensive issues and extensive pain. Some people wake up from their amputation surgery and a couple of weeks later, they're great. Their prostheses fit amazingly and everything's awesome. People's comfort level, wearing a prosthetic at home or wearing one in public, taking it off at home or taking it off in public is going to vary person to person. This is a very personal journey and it does look different for everybody. So those are my answers, at least to the question. I hope I have answered that thoroughly. Let me know if you have any questions about this. Let me know if there's any other video topics you'd like to see me cover in upcoming videos. I would love your input. A huge thank you goes out to all my patrons over on Patreon. I owe you a debt of gratitude. Patreon is a platform where you can support the creators that you watch and care about and want to financially support in return for that. You get a community, you get access to early things like exclusive videos and early access posts. I do some like behind the scenes and bloopers sort of videos from time to time over there. And also if you join at certain levels you can get a video message directly from me to you or a hand signed print of my artwork, things of that nature. So check it out if you're interested. Link is on the screen. And to you watching this video right now, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today and my puppies and my kitty. You could be anyone in the world doing absolutely anything and you chose to spend a few minutes with me. Thank you for that. It means a lot to me. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys. 🎵Hand her from the sky all about...🎵