making a life changing choice

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I had my pre-op appointment today to go over my medical history and instructions on what to do before my surgery.

The surgery itself is only gonna take an hour and if all goes well, I'll be going home the next day!

I finally got pre-approval for the surgery from my insurance. My surgery date is a week from Thursday.
I'm going with Hanger Prosthetics since I already know that company because they made my braces.

I'm kinda surprised that I'm pretty excited and not nervous about this at all!

Even if you have post-operative pain, it won't hurt as much as your foot does now, so that's why you're not nervous.

15 hours left of being a natural biped. Surgery is at 9:30 tomorrow morning!

Surgery went perfectly. Not feeling as bad as I thought I would. I'm glad it's finally done. Now the hard part begins.

Well done, best wishes for a fast recovery. You'll be up and around on your new foot soon.

I'm so glad it went well. Best wishes for a rapid recovery.

I hope you have a speedy recovery, and my thoughts are with you.

Any news? How's it going?

Sounds like you know a lot about this, are excited for this, and have thought a lot about it. From the information you provided it sounds like a good option. Go for it!

Hey everyone. It has been two weeks since my surgery and everything is going pretty good. I haven't had much phantom pain and the general surgery pain is about gone. I'm almost completely off the pain meds. Now the biggest aggervation is the staples! They come out on Monday and I can't wait!! !! !

Once my scar area heals enough and the swelling goes down, I'll be able to start the process of having my leg made. I'm hoping to start that process in a few weeks.

I'll post updates regularly.

Hey everyone!
Tomorrow will be the 4 week mark since my surgery and I'm going to the prosthetist to see if they take my insurance. If so, I could get casted for my leg as soon as tomorrow!

As usual, I'm not patient enough for that to happen so with the help of my best friend, I put together my own leg out of parts bought from eBay!
The foot is a Freedom Innovations Renegade MX LP. I got a really good deal on it. The socket is actually for a left leg, but it fits well enough for me to get some practice walking and to get used to it.



I was able to modify the socket enough that I can walk with it for short periods of time. This was the day after I got this socket (4 days ago). I wasn't able to get my leg to go all the way in so it wasn't too comfortable.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU5xrvZeM98[/youtube]


This video was from earlier this evening! At this point I've only had about 2 hours of experience (over the past 4 days) of walking on a prosthetic leg!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH2ZGLBzCsI[/youtube]

I've also been able to drive again now that I have a right foot again!


I can't wait to get my own socket! Even with this one that doesn't fit very well and isn't very comfortable to wear, I walk better than I did with my natural leg!

Fantastic, good luck with the next step.

Just remembered a couple things that happened that I wanted to post because in hindsight, they're pretty funny!
My dad and I stopped at a grocery store on our way down to visit family for the 4th of July. When I was checking out a man came up to me and asked me if I lost my leg in the military. I said no, and then he asked how I lost my leg. I was in the middle of paying so I wasn't really thinking about the conversation and I just said "Surgery." He just laughed and for a couple seconds I was thinking to myself "Wait. What just happened?"

The other funny thing was today. I stopped by work to talk to my boss about when I could come back to work.

I left my prosthetic leg in my car and was using my wheelchair. One of my coworkers was walking to his car and said "Holey crap! What happened? Where's your leg!?" I replied "In my car." Then came the awkward silence and a second of confusion on my part while trying to figure out his odd reaction.

I sometimes really like how my brain works! It makes for some funny stories!

Glad everything's going well!