1.) Am I finally ready to get my prosthetic leg?
2.) What is the distal end of my residual limb?
3.) What are “dog ears” when it comes to an amputation?
4.) Can I still get a prosthetic leg if I have “dog ears”?
Shrinking Down and Staying There
The main goal in this period of moderate to severe edema is to reduce the swelling and once you have seen this happen, then you need to feel like it is under control. Meaning, the edema has remained consistent and nominal in size for a period of time. That is probably the second step in the edema “game”. You need not only to reduce it, but you need to keep it off for an extended period of time. It is not a miscellaneous hurdle the prosthetic company imposes. It is for a good reason. Again, this will all come together for your when we start talking about a part of your prosthesis called a “socket”.
The Shape of Your Residual Limb
At the distal end of your residual limb, you may notice after your surgery that the shape is not necessarily round. For future reference, in the prosthetic world and basically all over in medical community, distal means farthest point away. Like, down near the incision line or farthest end of the residual limb would be its most distal point. Again, another term that you might start to hear more and more. The image below will show you what the “distal end” is.
In some cases, at this “distal” end, especially right after an amputation surgery, there maybe something referred to as “dog ears”.
When someone makes this statement, they are referring to the part of the residual limb that might not be necessarily round, but it rather has more of an angle to it. Almost every time we see one dog ear, there are two. One on each side of the incision line. It will appear as if it were two legs of an acute triangle. See our image above.
This angled portion of the skin is usually a temporary appearance and can subside with the compression therapy that we spoke of earlier in many cases. At a glance, you can probably understand why it would be a good idea to get the shape under control more before getting a prosthesis.
This angled shape is usually temporary. And it has to be part of your healing process to get it under control, which is very possible. The question arises, for those who want to jump right ahead is, “what will you do if dog ears are incorporated into the design of the prosthesis when you do not have them anymore?”
Right?
If you go too quickly in this initial phase, then the dog ears that are not there anymore will create extra space and you might be a step back from where you want to be. Meaning, there might be space at the bottom of your prosthetic socket now because the dog ears are not there anymore. You might be thinking, “so what” I can still where my new leg without dog ears. I don’t care. But the truth is that you need the socket to hold onto your residual limb and if there is too much space, the leg could fall off. Not good, if you like standing upright…