Know When to Add or Remove Stump Socks
Add Sock Ply:
- Pressure along your knee cap
- Pressure along boney prominences, especially tibia or femur
- It feels as if you're walking on the bottom of your residual limb
- You can rotate within your socket even with weight applied.
- You're experiencing low back pain all of a sudden
- You feel pain in the opposing hip joint
- Each step forward with your prosthesis feels like you're dropping into a hole
- You notice the fabric covering on your prosthetic gel liner is starting to show signs of wear along cut end of your tibia area
- The skin along your distal tibia (cut end of your tibia) is becoming discolored
- You have an overall sense that your socket is loose; you should be continually experimenting and/or adjusting your stump sock ply
- You hear a whooshing sound with each step; assuming your are using a pin locking prosthetic liner without a knee suspension sleeve
- You are experiencing discomfort along your below knee fibula head
- You are experiencing discomfort along the pubic ramus bone in your groin area
Remove Sock Ply:
- You are unable to or experiencing difficulty trying to apply your prosthesis.
- You feel pain and/or excessive redness along the tibial tubercle. This is the bone just below your knee cap
- The bottom of your (stump) residual limb is throbbing
- In extreme occurrences, typically after 2-3 months, you notice the bottom of your residual limb is leaking, blisters are forming, an odor has formed and your skin is discolored. This may be a very curable reaction to a lack of total contact called Verrucous Hyperplasia.
- You're experiencing low back pain all of a sudden
- You feel pain in the opposing hip joint
- If you wear a locking prosthetic liner and you are unable to get the pin to activate the lock after repeated attempts to align your pin; assuming you're locking pin is long enough
TIP: When you are experiencing difficulty getting the pin along the bottom of your prosthetic gel liner to activate your lock start with no socks and slowly work up to the correct sock ply count. Once you are able to get your lock to activate take your prosthesis off and add a sock. If your lock activates again, repeat this process until you are at an optimum stump sock ply count.
