inMotion Magazine

March | April 2019 38 Health & Well-Being 13. We Suggest getting you moving as soon as possible post‑amputation. 14. We Recommend maximizing your function through walking, strength, cardiovascular fitness, and activities of daily living training. 15. We Suggest offering you a microprocessor knee over a non‑microprocessor knee to reduce falls and maximize your satisfaction. 16. We Recommend you track your own rehabilitation progress with outcome measures; examples include the timed up and go, the six‑minute walk test or the Comprehensive High-Level Activity Mobility Predictor. 17. We Suggest you track multiple aspects of your recovery with a combination of outcome measures to include patient surveys that ask you how you are doing. 18. We Recommend you work with your healthcare team to assess and track your health factors that may lead to poorer outcomes: smoking, other injuries or illnesses, social functioning, pain, etc. You can ask your healthcare teams questions based on all 18 recommendations. The more informed you are, the better you can advocate for your own healthcare. Questions to ask your healthcare team based on the CPG: 1. What kind of education will I receive? When will I receive it? Is there written information, or information on a website or a smartphone/tablet application I can use? 2. Will you screen me for mental well-being at every phase of rehabilitation? 3. How will you measure the intensity of my pain? How will you measure its interference with my daily function? 4. How will you personalize my pain management? How will you transition me away from opioids? 5. How will you accommodate my birth sex or gender identity in developing my personal treatment plan? 6. What is your peer support program? Is it certified? When will I hear more? 7. Will I meet with the entire healthcare team? How will you include me in shared decision-making on rehabilitation goals and outcomes? How will you include me in discussions on residual limb length and amputation level? 8. Although there is no recommendation #8, you can still seek information on the surgical procedure. This includes the level the surgeon is considering (how high). This also includes whether there will be a myodesis (tying the muscle back to the bone) or targeted muscle reinnervation (connecting nerve ends to muscle). 9. Am I a candidate for a rigid or semi-rigid post- operative dressing? BE PREPARED! With questions to ask your healthcare team