Hey Trish,



When I first started out I had a lot of balance issues and still do almost 2 years later. I have an old knee injury from when I was a power weight lifter years ago. My prosthetisist said he would help with my support by keeping sort of ears on my socket that come up on the side of my knee and help supports it from going side to side. I don't know if it would help or not but it may be something to talk to them about.

You may just need some extra strength training for the leg to help your knee.

Not too sure about the corset type thing, I think I would look a bit weirder then normal with one on. :-D



James

Dear Trish, I am an old orthopedic surgeon with some experience in prosthetics. There is also a prosthetist on the members list now by name of "AL". You might want to check with him also. It sounds as if you have afoot alignment problem. If the foot is dorsiflexed at the "ankle" you will feel as if you are dropping off at the end of your step and the knee may bend because there is no force to keep it extended
If you went for a long time before your amputation you might well have weak knees. If you are a swimmer then you could have a modified prosthesis with a swim fin. You would then work against the force of the water, trying to keep the knee straight, to build up the muscles. The other exercize is straight leg raising with some weight on the end of your prosthesis. Three to five poinds is sufficient but you must do literally hundreds of straight leg raises daily to regain strength. I used to tell my patients to do 300 a day. For every one day you have had the problem it will take ten days of concentrated effort to get the strength back. It is a long process so don't give up. By the end of each day you should feel as if the muscles above the knee are "tired".If you do not feel this then you are not doing enough repetitions. However, if you do too much early on you can cause yourself to have actusl muscle spasms which can be painful. I favor the swimming method but supplemented with the SLR's. If you like to swim check on SCUBA diving for amputees.
You are too young to go the corset route and this woulod only cause more weakness. Let me know how it goes. Gene

Hi Trish Is the knee that is giving out on your Prosthetic side?
If it is I can give you some questions to ask your doctor Because I just had mine adjusted and it works so much better...
I also am trying a knee brace with my other knee they are wanting to do a knee replacement I am not really wanting to mess with my so called good knee..lol
let me know if I can help...Good luck to ya..

Hey Trish, I see this post was 9 months ago, what happened? I'm having knee problems, my prosthetic leg can't support my weight... did you have any luck with the knee brace?