When Angelina Martinson conducted an informal online poll about K-levels, she expected to get a lot of negative opinions. But she didn’t anticipate a 100 percent disapproval rating.
Yet that’s the result Martinson’s unscientific survey yielded. “Not a single respondent felt the K-level system was serving them well,” she writes in this month’s issue. “Instead, people unanimously viewed K-levels as a limiting, emotionally taxing system that left them feeling as if insurance companies dictate their lives.”
A fair number of prosthetists are ready to move on from K-levels too, Martinson adds. So why do these unpopular, clinically suspect assessments persist? Start with the fact that the K-level system, for all its imperfections, at least has a track record. Prosthetists are familiar with it and have learned to work around its faults. Improvements on K-levels exist only in theory, for now; no alternative has been tested at any scale. And any (semi-)objective rating system, no matter how ingenious, will likely miscategorize some patients. Most prosthetists would argue some type of benchmarking mechanism is needed to guide amputees and clinicians toward patient-appropriate prosthetic technology. So if we’re getting rid of K-levels, what’s taking their place?
Martinson sketches out what some of the options might look like. Her article is titled “Are We Still OK With K-levels?” and you can start reading on page 28.
Elsewhere in this issue, Mary Elizabeth Frandson examines the joys of surfing for amputees. Despite what you might have heard, Frandson explains, it doesn’t take great athletic ability (and/or a waterproof prosthesis) to catch a wave. Lots of people ride on their stomachs and knees, getting the same enjoyment as those who ride upright—and feeling the same surge of power. “The ocean is your sanctuary,” one amputee surfer attests. “Everyone experiences brokenness. It’s about finding those things that help us heal.” Read all about it in “Wave Therapy,” beginning on page 12.
Most people know Edward James Olmos for his iconic roles as Martin Castillo in Miami Vice and Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver. But for most of this century, he’s played the role of limb-loss educator and advocate. Olmos, who watched five family members experience bilateral amputation caused by poorly managed diabetes, partners with the American Limb Preservation Society to recognize the world’s most impactful amputation-prevention programs.
“The key to this whole thing is education,” Olmos told Amplitude, “but that’s also the hardest part in the whole situation. It’s very difficult, psychologically, to lose a limb. I know everybody understands that, but if it’s an amputation you could have avoided if you had known more, it’s even more difficult.” The actor also weighed in about why Hollywood still hasn’t made a great movie about type 2 diabetes. Find out his opinion in “Hard-won Knowledge,” which starts on page 24.
Finally, Angie Heuser reveals what women with limb difference talk about when there are no guys around. Turn to page 20 to read about her weekly ladies’ chats in “Soul Sisters.” Enjoy the issue!
