(upbeat music)
- Howdy, folks.
I'm Garrett, and this is You Got This!
Welcome back to another episode.
This one will hopefully be short and sweet.
I wanna talk about one of the most,
you know, you might think about it ahead of time,
but I had no idea, and that's sweat
when you're working with a prosthetic leg.
This is rubber.
It doesn't breathe.
There's some options and technology
out there that are breathable,
but there's, you know,
with anything there's trade offs,
there's pros and cons.
You gain some breathability,
you lose some support or other things.
Regardless,
while your liner and socket may breathe
or give you a little comfort,
at the end of the day, you can't stop the sweat.
It's just a problem and a challenge.
If you live in a warmer climate,
it can be even worse of a problem
because while your liner is attached to your socket,
which is good,
if you're sweating and this is slippery,
your whole liner will just come off.
And so, you'll notice this liner's kind of short.
It's actually a temporary liner
while they're working on getting me
the real liners for my new leg.
But ideally, the higher up your liner goes,
it's kind of a trade off.
the higher it is,
the more surface area and connection
it has to your body,
the more likely it is to stay on.
The higher up it goes, the hotter it's gonna be.
So, it's a tough balance.
Somewhat ironically or confusingly to me,
if you're gonna be doing a long run or a workout,
unfortunately, you want it to be higher
so that you have that surface area
and that connection to your leg to help it stay on.
You get hotter, there's no way around it.
You just do, and you kinda gotta deal with it.
When I come back from a long mountain bike ride
a run or whatever,
when I take my liner off,
sorry if it's gross, but it's true.
I'll let the truth out here for people.
I'll dump a quarter cup of water, sweat,
out of my liner.
Before I realized that, I'd take it off,
I'd be sitting here and take it off
and just be this big puddle on the carpet.
So eventually you learn, you know to anticipate it.
But it's just part of the deal,
and sure enough, I didn't grab him.
Let's see here.
So, the first and simplest way,
and my preferred way, is to use liner liners.
These are basically like socks
that go on your residual limb.
This one's thinner.
These are the ones I wear pretty much every day,
because if you don't, even if you're not fully sweating,
it's just uncomfortable.
The liner kinda, it gets air bubbles
and just doesn't feel good.
Don't love it.
These are a little thicker,
and they're by a company called Swiftwick.
They're really nice and soft.
The elastic around here,
it doesn't stretch as easily,
so you can sometimes not quite cut off circulation,
but it's a tighter fit.
I'll only wear these if I'm working out
and I'm really gonna have my blood pumping,
and need that extra sweat wicking.
And I'll usually wear both if I'm doing something like that,
I'll wear this one underneath and this one over the top.
I find that usually gets the job done pretty well.
Beyond that, there's your standard options,
and really, you know your skin best.
You wanna talk to your prosthetist, your doctor,
get advice from them.
So, you know, maybe try these things.
If you know you've had luck with them
or they help, awesome.
But, so there's Certain Dri,
which is prescription-strength deodorant.
It works.
The downside to stuff like this
is you basically have to put it on your limb
and then just sit there and let it dry
so that it does its job,
'cause if you put on your socks and stuff
while it's still wet,
it won't work as well.
So, you have to be patient with this.
Similarly, this is a company called ALPS.
They make a lot of prosthetic solutions,
and this is just an antiperspirant spray.
So, again, you have to let it dry,
so you have to be patient, but it can help.
There's also things,
this can help with chafing.
This is Body Glide.
Baby powder I don't so much use,
but you know, if it's something that's helped you,
you know you have some, that can be good.
On the other hand, so there's sweat,
and controlling sweat is a big deal.
After you've been sweating,
after you beat your leg up running, bike-riding,
whatever it is,
your leg can be in pain.
There's everything from ingrown hairs
to just general skin irritation or blisters.
And it happens.
Usually, unless you're pushing yourself super, super hard,
I would say if you listen to your leg
or your arm or whatever it is,
if it hurts, listen to it.
Don't push yourself if you don't have to,
because you'll pay for it.
You might get an extra hour of an activity,
and then be sidelined for two or three days.
There's been times where, if I push myself too hard,
usually over the course of a week or two consistently,
there will easily be a couple days
where I just flat-out don't wanna wear my leg.
So, I would say maybe two times a year,
something'll happen where I'll wanna go three days
and just barely wear my leg,
or take it off every chance I get.
Just kind of the way it is.
So, for that, and this is only a small sampling,
there's a ton of stuff.
This is from ALPS as well.
It's just an ointment,
kind of like a petroleum jelly, almost,
that has some vitamin A and D
and just soothes it and helps moisturize.
So, this is a great one,
especially if my,
like, I have a lot of problems here
at the end of my distal end of my shin.
And it'll, it hurts right now.
It'll start getting rough and chapped,
and stuff like this really, really helps.
This is another one,
and this specifically says it's for sensitive skin,
and it's hypoallergenic, also by ALPS.
It's a silicone skin lotion.
So, what this can do is help reduce friction
and that rubbing that,
you know, just like you would get blisters on your feet.
It's the same kind of thing.
When that one spot rubs all day long,
it'll just tear up your skin.
Stuff like this can help mitigate that.
This is another one.
I haven't loved this one as much.
I got it early on.
It's kind of like liquid baby powder.
I feel like I should probably
give it another try these days,
but it's anti-friction.
You know, it's not bad or anything.
I've just found that the ointment
and the silicone lotion help as well.
And this is Amputee Essentials.
I'll include some links to this in the store.
So, again, like most things about being an amputee,
it's complicated.
There's just more to think about, more to do.
You gotta take care of your limb and keep it healthy.
And yeah, it just gets a little more involved,
but there's solutions to all of this stuff, right?
Like, it's out there.
You know, you're gonna go out,
you're gonna push yourself.
You're gonna beat your leg up some days,
and it's gonna hurt.
And you know,
you go to your staples and you can fix it.
Which reminds me, so, one more thing.
Usually, even if you take a shower
late at night or whatever,
I almost never take a shower directly before I get into bed.
Even if it's a little before I get into bed,
I will have been wearing my leg
for an hour or two or whatever.
So, almost every night when I get into bed,
I'll put hand sanitizer on my limb
just to help fight germs, clean it up,
because you can't just stop and take a shower
all the time to keep it clean.
And so, I've found that this really helps
reduce a lot of the irritation
and kill any bacteria that might irritate your skin
or get into cuts and that kind of thing.
So, I just stock up on it.
I keep it by my bedside, take my leg off.
I'll clean my liner and then just take some hand sanitizer,
just rub it on my leg, and go to bed.
So, skincare, sweat, all this stuff, it's challenging.
There's not an easy way around it.
But don't be surprised when you run into it,
and just know there's solutions,
and just like everything else,
you can adapt and find something that works best for you,
for your skin, your limb, and you'll manage.
You'll be all right.
So, that's it for this week.
Thanks again.
I'm Garrett, and you've got this.
(upbeat music)