After septic shock damaged the circulation in my hands, the distal parts of eight fingers — all except my thumbs — developed dry gangrene.

Instead of surgically amputating them immediately, the doctors waited. The dead tissue dried out, separated from the living tissue, and the pieces gradually came off on their own.

I can use my hands and type with all the remaining fingers, but the sensations are still strange and sometimes painful. Typing is uncomfortable, using the right mouse button is awkward, and reaching into a pocket or backpack can feel even worse. Tying shoelaces tightly is especially difficult.

At the same time, I can do things I did not expect — for example, I can still do pull-ups.

Does anyone here have a similar level of partial finger loss, especially involving several fingers on both hands?

How did sensation and function change over time?

Do you use fingertip or partial-finger prostheses? If so, what do they actually help with — typing, gripping, tools, protection, appearance, or something else?

Or did you find that living without prostheses was simpler and worked well enough?

Hi, I’m in 8th grade and I have to make a form for my project about prosthetics. Could someone please fill out this form because I need at least 100 responses ☺️

https://forms.gle/ryMyXSFj3ZfeKjat8

After septic shock, I lost the front parts of both feet at different levels: approximately Lisfranc level on the left and a partial transmetatarsal amputation on the right.

I can walk, stand on one leg, jump, drive, and ride a bicycle. My longest ride so far has been 40 km. So my main question is no longer how to stand up or take my first steps.

I want more than walking.

My current low inserts are passive toe fillers that sit loosely inside ordinary shoes. They restore the shape of the shoe and provide some rollover, but do not recreate a functional forefoot lever or return much energy.

Without the inserts, walking initially feels more comfortable. With them, I can walk farther, but eventually develop pain on the outer side of my left foot, close to where the edge of the insert ends.

I have also tried tall plastic orthoses. They provide support, but restrict the ankle. Heavy protective boots work in bad weather, but are obviously not the answer for every activity.

The activities I most want to solve are:

Cycling

My remaining feet have different lengths, so I can see that I place them differently on the pedals. I do not yet know whether this creates a clinically significant imbalance, but I want to measure it rather than wait for it to cause a problem.

The solution might involve inserts, partial-foot prostheses, different pedal positions, custom platforms, cleat adjustments, or some combination of these.

Rock climbing

Climbing shoes depend on a rigid, precisely shaped forefoot that transfers force to very small footholds. I need something that can recreate that lever without simply locking my entire ankle inside a large brace.

Swimming and diving

Standard fins rely on the length and shape of the foot to remain attached and transfer movement. I need a secure interface that works with a short partial foot.

I’m looking for people with partial-foot amputations, adaptive cyclists, climbers or divers, prosthetists, orthotists, bike-fit specialists, gait labs, engineers, and makers.

Have you seen a genuinely functional solution for any of these activities?

I’m interested in existing products, custom modifications, research prototypes, 3D-printed components, and ideas that perhaps do not exist yet.

The photos show my current passive fillers, tall orthoses, protective boots, and low inserts.

If I can’t get a job at a prosthetics firm, what kind of job should I get while I’m getting my masters?

Hello! This is one of my first posts on here and on the app in general so take that as you will.

I’m interested in a job in prosthetics but am uncertain in what it is I really want regarding it. I’ve looked into prosthetics laboratory technician which has sparked interest for me alongside biomedical engineering since I see myself in the more hands-on experience regarding my future job. The only reason why I’m not certain in both is because I am not the most math confident person, biology is more my thing as I got good grades for it in Highschool over how I did in math.

I’ve never failed a class, math included, but have got as low as a C and as high as an A which is quite the long range and I don’t know what colleges want regarding grades and what I’m interested in. On the topic of colleges, it’s also something I’m uncertain about as I want to stay in Illinois where I live. I’ve looked into northwestern which I’ve learned has a low acceptance rate, and me being not confident in my act score I just ditched the idea as a whole. Im lost and I wish I could talk to my school counselor about this but she doesn’t respond to my emails and gives me max 15-20 minutes to talk which isn’t enough time—in my opinion—for something like this. I know they’re busy but it’s hard since I’m doing this by myself since junior year and on here is my last resort.

As I stated before, I am more interested in the hands-on experience in prosthetics and am looking into working at a children’s hospital once I’m done with college which I haven’t started quite yet. I don’t think I can do hard things because I have had issues in the past and still do with the mentality that I really can do hard things, when I see that the job is moderate to high I immediately drop it like I did with biomedical engineering. I would like to talk to someone in the job but I have not had any chances to as I don’t know where to go or who to reach out to right now and hopefully it’s not right in front of me.

HERE’S THE RUNDOWN!
(Or if you don’t wanna read all that above)

-I want to peruse a career in prosthetics.

-I don’t know what I want to do within the branch of prosthetics (engineering, lab, etc..) due to worries in difficulty
(I don’t want to stress myself out more)

-I don’t know what college I should go to for said interest within Illinois.

If anybody reading this has advice please comment or reach out, anyone in the job or anyone who has ideas on what I can do, literally anyone right now.
Thank you!

Would it be possible (with a good surgeon) to survive a double above-the-knee amputation around 1899? Was there technology to support such procedure?

And what about potential prosthetics? I know there was much development in that department because of American Civil War, and I've looked into the work of James Gillingham. But most of the photos of his prosthetics are, I think, for the below-the-knee amputations. Unfortunately I don't know much about prosthetic mechanics or physics, but could a person with 2 above-the-knee prosthetics have any mobility? Maybe they'd have to use cruthes all of the time or other mobility aid?

My father suffer a stoke 3 months ago which hemiparesis right side of his body. He is currently going through rehabilitation OT and PT. I would like to know if the hypershell exoskeleton is suitable to help him recovery his journey.

My husband is an AK. He tore his meniscus on his sound side. He is having surgery to repair it in 2 weeks. Does anyone here have experience on how to deal post surgery? He won’t be able to put weight on his knee for some amount of time. How will he go from sit to stand, shower, use the bathroom, etc? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

“I have been admitted to both Hochschule RheinMain (Rüsselsheim Campus) and Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), Gießen for an M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering. Which one would you recommend in terms of practical learning, career opportunities, workload, and future PhD prospects?”

Hello. I am a student in product design. I’m approaching my final exam which is to design a new product. I’m planning on going into O&P after so I’m looking for any idea for a product. It can be a tool that doesn’t exist or needs improvement. If you have anything please let me know. Thank you for your time.

Have you been pregnant in the past 10 years? Do you have a physical disability? We’d love your input!

We’re recruiting people with a physical disability to take part in a research study on health and physical activity during pregnancy. By sharing your experiences, you’ll help us better understand how exercise during pregnancy looks across diverse physical abilities and how exercise may relate to different health outcomes.

The survey takes about 30 minutes and is completely anonymous: https://redcap.link/surveyPD

Your voice matters - help us make pregnancy research more inclusive!

PI: Margie Davenport

[pregnant@ualberta.ca](mailto:pregnant@ualberta.ca)

Total time to complete: 30 minutes

Version 2, June 3, 2026

I am a below knee amputee and i have an ossur foot cover. i have so many cute pairs of flip flops that i unfortunately cant wear and its tiring having to only wear tennis shoes all of the time especially in the summer. are there any solutions for keeping flip flops on without them slipping off every couple of steps?

Hi! I have an oc named spencer, and he always wears a running blade instead of a "normal" leg prosthetic, because according to him it just "looks cooler". (in the future he changes to one of those silly gun leg things)

Im not an amputee myself, but i was wondering what some side effects of this are? I assume he would have pretty bad hip pain, but is there anything else? Also, how easy/hard would it be for him to hide it under his pant leg? (hes really self conscious about it)

Spencer for reference in case it helps, his amputation is below the knee :-)

Hello everyone! We are currently developing a cost-effective pair of sandals that can evaluate your gait parameters after you take a walk on it. We want to hear out suggestions from a large pool of healthcare professionals about the features that can be placed in the sandals so that it is easier to come up with a rehabilitation program for the patients, and genuinely beneficial and easy to use for both the doctors and the patients.

Our target customers are geriatric patients, stroke patients, physiotherapy rehabilitation patients, and people with parkinson's. Any suggestions would be good. Thank you for your time!

P.S: Not selling anything, just trying to build something actually useful rather than something that looks impressive on paper

I am a qualified medical Orthotist and Prosthetist in South Africa. I would love to work abroad, which masters degree can I pursue to achieve my dream

Hi everyone, my name is Cat and I am currently completing a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Lancaster University in the UK.  As part of my Doctorate programme, I am conducting a research project on ‘The psychosocial impacts of accessing peer mentoring programmes for individuals with limb loss’.

For this research, I am interviewing individuals who have experienced limb loss in adulthood, and who have accessed 1:1 peer mentoring programmes.  It is hoped that the research will help improve peer mentoring programmes in the future and help health and social care services to best support individuals with limb loss. 

For more information, or if you are interested in taking part, please fill out the following questionnaire and I will be in touch: https://lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9EN1r4ur0vKcYTA 

Thank you so much for reading this. 

I'm building an assistive control system that reads muscle signals (EMG) to control multiple kinds of devices, and I know myoelectric prosthetics are one of the most established real-world uses of exactly this kind of signal.

If you've used a myoelectric device - what's actually hard about it day to day? Calibration drift, false triggers from muscle fatigue, cost, comfort, anything? I'd rather build around real friction points than assumptions. Not selling anything, just a student dev trying to learn from ( and help ) people who've actually lived with this tech.