Travel Troubles

I traveled to Virginia this past weekend for one of my college roommates wedding (the BEST wedding I've been to so far!) Everyone has gone off for a weekend trip and left their cell phone charger at home and had to pick one up at the nearest store.  The knee component of my prosthetic is a C-Leg so it has a computer in it and it needs to be charged like any cell phone. On my first flight to Atlanta I was thinking about going to bed when I got to Richmond. The light bulb went off and I opened my eyes and freaked out. I had forgotten my leg charger at home. I was going to be gone for 4 days. There is no way the leg is going to last that long and unfortunately you can't just go buy a charger like you can for cell phones. I called my mom in between flights and asked her to FedEx it to me priority Overnight for Saturday delivery. She went to the airport to see if she could get it on the next flight to Richmond and I could just go pick it up at the airport. We played this game a few years ago when i ordered new golf clubs on eBay and the seller shipped them to my house in Houston, only I was in Ithaca, New York playing in a charity golf tournament the next day. It worked that time. I drove to Rochester to pick them up! It didn't work out as nicely this time. The only option we had was to FedEx priority overnight Saturday delivery. Thank you to the lady at FedEx that was so generous and made it a lot easier! I was so worried that it would be delayed and that I would not have time to charge it before the 4:30 wedding. 

Friday afternoon was about the 36 hour point since the leg had been charged and I was preparing myself to have to walk stiff legged if we went anywhere(I wasn't going to miss out on any of the fun). I called Jon, my prosthetist, I told him my situation and he said that it would probably last 40 hours and that I would probably have a dead leg by the time I went to bed on Friday night. His take on the unfortunate event was, "Well at least for a few hours you forgot you were an amputee!" When I woke up Saturday morning, the leg STILL was not dead. I was kind of disappointed, I really wanted to see what would happen when it is not charged. I now know that the charge in my leg will last longer that 48 hours. 

The hotel phone rang at 11:15am on Saturday morning, it was the concierge; FedEx had just arrived! Sydney ran over to the front office and got my package and got my leg charging for the wedding festivities! 

4th of July

We all celebrate the 4th of July in honor of our independence. We would not have independence without those heros that sacrifice their lives for us. In this time of war where so many wounded soldiers are coming home amputees, I am often asked (especially on holidays like Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day) if I am a member of the military. I really wish I could say yes, but I just respond, "No, it was just a car accident." I wish I could say that I was doing something so selfless.

This year I am flying on the holiday. I am wearing shorts so it is obvious I wear a prosthetic, I'm also wearing an American flag shirt. Several people in the airport walked up to me and told me "Happy 4th of July" or some variation of that. On my last flight of the night to Richmond, my ticket had me seated near the back of the plane, so I asked the attendant if there was a seat up closer that I could move to. She said, "I was hoping you would ask, I didn't want to offend you by offering." Many times people will underestimate what and how much an amputee can do, offering a free upgrade to first class, now that's not offensive. The gesture was nice though, I totally see where she was coming from.

 When I first started going to the gym that I've been going to for about 2 years now, people would come up to me and commend me for going to the gym and how hard I workout at the gym. I mean I don't workout THAT hard. At first, I would think, "Geez, what do they think I should be doing, staying at home and not go out in public?" The more I would think about it, they were just giving me a compliment.

Firsts

I'm going to play catch up on my experiences and funny stories for a little while until I get caught up. So here it goes...

I got fitted for my first prosthetic in October of 2009 and received it only two weeks later. I wore it for about a month and the doctors realized I had HO (heterotrophic ossification). Basically it is when you get a piece of bone like material that "grows" in the tissue. Mine happened to be at the tip of my leg and the prosthetic was putting pressure on it. It was very painful. I had it removed December 1 of the same year.

I went back to school at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in February for what would be the only semester of my Junior year. My first weekend back a few of my friends and I went to Pizza Hut. I had not really been out in public with my prosthetic with the exception of my physical therapy 3 times a week back in Houston and the nearby Macy's. No one had ever said anything to me about my leg, and honestly I had not thought about what I might tell someone had they asked. There was a wait for a table and the cutest little four year old girl was also waiting with her mom. She curiously watched me walk in and and went over to her mom and said, "Mommy, she has a robot leg!" I don't really remember what I was thinking when I heard that or what I did. The most memorable thing to me was that the mother came over to me and asked me if I could explain to the little girl what happened. I told the girl, "My leg got hurt really bad in a car accident and the doctors had to make me a new one." She expressed that she wanted a robot leg too as she lifted up her pant leg. I told her she had two really good legs and to keep her good legs. She accepted that simple answer. The following week I heard another kid say something, the only thing different was that her mother ripped her up and told her to be quiet. It broke my heart that her curious mind was scolded. You would be surprised but most parents scold their children for wondering.