You know those revelations when you are amazed you didn’t have it a number of years ago but are so massive that they can literally change your life? Okay, before you get excited – I haven’t reinvented sliced bread or (unfortunately) found a cure for cancer. My revelation is more related to being an amputee and travelling on the long haul flights. After attempting to sleep from Melbourne to Singapore with the Stumpstinator (aka Stumpy, Mr Elephant, or the missing bit) at an uncomfortable angle wedged into the seat pocket, I had the brilliant idea of putting down my tray table and resting Stumpy on a pillow on the tray table. Genius.

Stumpy small

The Stumpstinator after lots of travelling

 

Being an amputee there are a number of issues when you travel. A few questions arise such as do you leave the leg on, take it off, stump socks on/off, lack of customised compression socks etc. The first time I did a long haul flight was from Melbourne to the USA – a solid 17hrs or so. Being the young, inexperienced ‘I don’t want to create a fuss’ type of teenager that I was, I didn’t get up once during a flight where I was stuck between two people. Lesson number 1 – always ask for an aisle. Lesson number 2 – if you take your leg off, and let your stump dangle, gravity will ensure that you can’t get your leg back on due to swelling. So here I was, 12 year old Han with her stump straight up in the air for a good 10minutes after everyone has departed the aircraft trying to be able to get my leg back on. 100% a sure fire way to not create a fuss…..

Other issues that arise relate to socks, liners etc. On the one hand – it can get chilly depending on how thin/chubby your stump is. Mine is of the skinny variety and so can get cold quite easily. As a result, I generally keep socks on. If you take them off – you can run the risk of your stump drying out (which can cause skin breakdowns a few days down the track). However, if you leave your sock on, this can lead to a germy, sweaty and toxic environment – also leading to skin breakdowns a few days down the track. So the jury is out on sock on vs. sock off.

Then you have the question of stump placement – to rest on top of the prosthetic leg (quite uncomfortable), wedge in the seat pocket (like I usually do), let the stump dangle for a bit (swelling issues), stick it through the gap in the seats (not effective if you are on an aisle (the food carriage doors usually come off better than your stump) or tuck up underneath (loss of blood supply can result). So as you can imagine, stump placement is an interesting conundrum. Hence my excitement of discovering the tray table option. Comfort + okay angle = ability to get a bit of sleep. Sleep = non-grumpy Han. Non-grumpy Han = happy days.

Naturally there are variations on these themes depending on if you are an above knee amputee, below knee amputee, the length of your stump, the diameter of your stump etc etc. The above musings have been purely from a below knee, elephant skinny shaped stump. No responsibility is assumed for other amputee’s preferences or logistics for stump placement on long haul flights.

 

Until next time,

Ride with a smile, ride with a purpose, ride in the moment,

Han