Hello! This is Christina, the Amputee OT.
This week, I am on vacation with my parents. They have a boat, and so, we have gone to the lake of the Ozarks.
This video will be about how to swim as an amputee, both using your prosthetic leg and NOT using your prosthetic leg.
The first thing you need to know is that if you're swimming without your prosthetic leg, it feels kind of weird.
You don't have a whole lot of
resistance
from your residual limb in the water compared to your foot. Sometimes, it feels like your residual limb is kind of
swimming through the air and not actually through the water.
It's really interesting.
You definitely want to check with your prosthetist to make sure you can
swim with your leg. Not all legs are rated for water and so some of them you can't get wet, or...
I don't know what'll happen....they'll melt?
...They'll rust? A lot, of them are made of Titanium so they're probably not gonna rust.
My foot is rated for salt water, so i can pretty much get It in whatever kind of water I want.
If you dump your prosthetic into water, you definitely need to rinse it out afterwards, because
If you're like me and you don't have a cosmetic cover, a lot of water and gunk and grime gets in there. Especially if you're
swimming on the lake and you're touching the bottom of the lake with your foot and walking around in shallow water.
The first time we went on the lake , I jumped in with my prosthetic and it felt pretty normal, um...
it didn't feel weird at all.
But then, I switched to swimming without my prosthetic,
and swam without my prosthetic for a while, and then put my prosthetic back on, and then I kind of felt like my prosthetic was
holding me back and weighing me down There's d lot of drag,
but I
don't sink to the bottom with my prosthetic. My mom was worried about that,
but my prosthetic sinks --so make sure that your leg is securely attached to you
if you're swimming in a lake with your prosthetic.
Because if it comes off, your prosthethic is probably going to sink to the bottom of the lake, and you're going to lose your ten
thousand Dollar investment
And then you won't have a leg for the rest of your trip, because you dropped it on the bottom of the lake; don't do that.
If you're wearing a prosthetic,
you've got these socks on, your socks are gonna get wet.
And if you're like me, you're crawling around on the bottom of the lake--your socks are going to get filthy. I've got
one now that's totally not white anymore
All your spot's waterlogged, and then you have to lay it out to dry. This liner doesn't really get wet.
It gets wet on the outside, but the inside is a bit of silicone, so that just kind of dries off and
that's no big deal. But you definitely have to make sure to clean it if you've got any sand or anything in it, and not--
not leave sand in your liner. Put your sock --your liner back on.
A lot of times, prosthetic legs kind of squeak or creak.
It's the movement of the foot inside the foot shell. And
I put some silicon lubricant inside my foot shell to keep it from squeaking and
now the foot squeaks again, because I washed all the silicone lubricant away ,and
When I got out of the water, my
foot on the inside was full of water, so I had to hold it upside down and let all the water drain out of it.
I'm going to go swimming in this pool,
probably without my prosthetic; so if you're going swimming in a pool without your prosthetic, then you want to put your leg
close to the edge of the pool so you can put it back, on when you get out without having to hop too far. [*smile*]
And your glasses ;)
If you have a transfibular amputation, like me, you're probably crawling around on your knees a lot, so
here's how to get out of pools using a ladder, like me! [ladder squeaks].
You probably shouldn't hop around the pool on one leg like I'm doing-- it's not safe.
Unless the pool has a really rocky surface it's probably okay. Don't hop around on this-- on this part that's slippery, or you'll fall.
["Ready?"] ["Yep!"] [Okay, that's all! I hope you enjoyed this video! Comment if you like, subscribe if you want. If you have any questions, feel free to
ask them, and see you later! Byebye!