As the saying goes, “timing is everything”.
It is no surprise to you that your surgery probably happened at the hospital. You could have started intensive prosthetic treatment while you are at the hospital. It all depends on how long your stay is there and if they have an inpatient rehab department that focuses on prosthetic rehabilitation.
You could even start treatment more definitively after you leave the hospital setting. This is not uncommon. It is also possible that you are at home reading this and now you have just realized you have a lot of questions as to why treatment did not happen at all yet. The treatment time frame for an amputee is different depending on your life circumstances after surgery.
The focused prosthetic treatment could have different starting points for different people based on some of the following factors :
- the medical facilities protocols on where you have stayed and how well you are healing in the process
- the reason for your amputation may play a big role on when you are starting the processes we talk about here. Some people have a trauma, others have a vascular reason as to why they need an amputation.
- And, quite honestly your medical insurance coverage plays a role on when and where you might begin the prosthetic processes we discuss here. Not everyone will just come out and say that to you, but we are trying to be upfront with you here.
Although it might not be easy to hear this right now (or read it) know that the time after an amputation surgery can seem to go by slow. You will want to get up and going really quickly, but the truth is that most people reading this will have to wait weeks before they are ready for prosthetic treatment.
Do we want it to be that way for you? No
Is this the truth? Yes.
Just hang in there. I know, it is easy for us to say this statement. Use this time to heal, obviously. But also to learn. We will try to help and keep you busy and interested as you learn more. : )
We have a lot more posts on what to learn. Keep reading if you wish. We have to break some of them up otherwise this will dozens of pages long. This way you can skip around at first to find out which topics you are most curious about and then maybe circle back and get the full overview of the process when you are ready.