Slippery Legs Slide Off!

I love my bath. I take it as the opportunity to pamper myself and to relax. I try to turn the daily activity into an event, utilizing everything from candles for mood lighting to soft music to enhance the "spa like" atmosphere. Sometimes the music is loud enough to drown out the repetitive knocking and "Mommy" being screeched on the outside of the bathroom door!

Knowing that I'm a sucker for new soaps, my Mom gave me a bottle of Dove liquid bath soap the other day. I was eager to give it a try. I thought that the moisturizing cream infused into the soap would leave my skin feeling soft and smooth. Last night I lit the candles, turned up the music, put Diego on the television for Robby and Scott and took my long anticipated bath.

My 20 minutes of solitude flew by because, before I knew it, Diego was finished and my two guys were knocking on the bathroom door. I climbed out, dried off and got dressed in my jammies. I was met at the door by a very happy little boy and his tired looking Daddy.

Robby and I went to the kitchen for ice cream. As I was walking around the kitchen, my stump kept pistoning. Usually, when I feel my stump pistoning, it is within the socket. This time it felt different because I was pistoning within the liner. I readjusted my leg, pulled the liner up higher on my leg and continued walking.

I was walking to the bedroom, Robby in tow, when I walked completely out of my liner and prosthetic. I was very lucky that I was able to grab onto the door frame as I was losing my balance. I came down on my knee, saving my stump from an extremely painful impact.

I had slipped out of my liner. The liner was still inside the prosthetic, indicating that the seal did not fail. For some reason, the liner was sliding right off my stump. One feel of my skin provided me with the answer.

The new soap, with moisturizing cream, did indeed provide me with soft and silky skin. Unfortunately, these two attributes are not necessarily a good thing on a residual limb. The cream in the soap was acting as a lubricant, enabling the liner to slide.

I rinsed off my limb to remove the lotion residue. I grabbed a different liner and put the creamy one in the wash. I put my brand new moisturizing soap in the cabinet for guests. Apparently soap infused with moisturizing cream is not necessarily a good thing for an amputee. Having my skin be silky and smooth proved to be too dangerous for this amputee! I found my grocery list and added Ivory soap.