Three years later, I still owe, not only getting my life back, but living it more active then ever to the work I have put in at the gym. There are no free gifts or magic bullets in life you need to put hard work in to get results. Build the body, you still have, strong and it will compensate for the part that is missing.

The most rewarding part of this past year has been working with amputees, helping them become active, so they too can fulfill their dreams and take back their lives. The stories of how each of them came to be amputees, constantly sheds light on how truly fragile our lives are. Their stories give true testament to how powerful the determination to survive can be. I feel honored that they choose me to be part of their journey. Each of them inspire and motivate me to push harder and to do more every day.

I am truly grateful for my mobility and blessed that I had the strength to embrace my situation and use it to open up amazing opportunities. Three years later, I still begin each day taking a few minutes to appreciate not being in pain and being thankful that I had the strength and determination to live my life without limitations. I then attach my leg and go off to do what I was meant to do, help others overcome their life challenges and live full, healthy lives.

Thank you to my wonderful wife and three incredible kids for their never ending support. It’s for them I push my limits every day. Also thank you to my growing list of awesome training clients. So many of you have come to be so much more then clients in my life.

In the next year I look forward to finding new personal physical challenges to meet and continuing with my mission to help people improve their lives through physical fitness.

No Excuses, No Limits!

I spent the first year making my body strong and capable without the leg. Being freed of the painful, useless leg was liberating, and I soon discovered that I was capable of accomplishing anything I wanted to in the gym. The more I pushed and challenged myself in the gym, the easier my daily life became. Outside the gym I took on cycling, rock wall climbing, returned to skiing and successfully completed challenging events such as the Warrior Dash. I also spent the year learning to walk with the prosthetic leg and manage it. None of it was easy, but with the right attitude, hard work and determination, I learned that amputation didn’t have to stop or define my life. In fact, I discovered that the human body is very much capable of adapting to physical change and accomplishing incredible things. I was living a full, highly active life despite losing a leg.

Going into my second year, I became a full-time personal trainer. The most rewarding part of my fitness journey has been having the ability to inspire people to get out and make improvements in their own lives. With the loss of my leg I have gained an incredible gift – the awesome ability to teach people that it doesn’t matter what challenges life has thrown at you, you can accomplish anything you want with determination and hard work. When faced with becoming unemployed early in the second year, the answer seemed obvious: give back by guiding, supporting and pushing others to overcome their challenges, discover their capabilities and give up their excuses.

This year has also been about running. In August of last year, I set the goal to run a 5K. As an amputee the freedom running gives is incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, running was also very frustrating for me. I was more than physically fit to run, yet without the proper tool – a running blade – I found myself really doing nothing more than inflicting pain on my residual limb. Not wanting to give in, I reset my goal to return to running in the spring.

As luck would have it, my motivation and push to get myself running came as a result of training a client. I promised this client that if he trained with me, not only would I get him physically ready to complete a Tough Mudder, but I would be right by his side running it with him.

My challenge was twofold. One, I needed to get my client ready to complete the Tough Mudder, and two, I had to figure out how I was going to run a 10-mile course without a running blade. We both put the work in, my client in the gym and me outside pushing through the pain, running, and adding a little length whenever my tolerance allowed. On July 24th we ran through the finish line at the Long Island Tough Mudder together.

Today, exactly 2 years to the day later, I am in Nashville, TN, where I will begin my journey as a runner. I have been given the incredible opportunity to become a member of the Amputee Blade Runners team. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and humbled to be among these amazing ABR athletes. I spent the past two years building a strong, very capable body, and will now return home with the tool – the running leg – that I need to fully experience the power and freedom running will give me.

So, what will year 3 bring? Training to run a marathon, another Tough Mudder, Ragnar Relay, triathlon training, 5Ks, jumping higher boxes, changing as many lives as I can in the gym as a trainer, and continuing what I do best – showing the world that life doesn’t end with amputation, and that you can in fact soar.

No Limits, No Excuses!!!!

I had no idea what TRX straps were, no interest in leaping onto a 30” box, and hadn’t done a burpee since elementary school. I had also never stepped foot into a gym nor had any plans to ever do so. If someone had told me then that 8 years in the future I would be a personal trainer, I would have said, “Yeah right, did you forget that I was the kid who almost didn’t graduate high school due to getting a zero in gym?”

But life threw me a challenge!

After six painful surgeries in an attempt to regain use of my destroyed ankle and six years of being in pain, unable to walk or do the activities I enjoyed, on September 24th 2014 I did the unthinkable – I had my lower left leg amputated.
Within weeks of the amputation, I decided to take on the challenge of becoming a strong, fit and capable one-legged guy. I signed on with a personal trainer. Having the painful dead leg gone was truly liberating, and I now wanted to be pushed hard and given no special treatment. I had no idea what I would accomplish. I soon found that the more I challenged myself, the easier my daily life as an amputee became. Before I knew it, with only my one leg, I was leaping on to 30” boxes, flipping 175lb tires, planking on two medicine balls, swinging on the gymnastic rings and signing up for physical challenges outside the gym that I had no idea how to achieve. With each one of them I grew into the person who could accomplish them and reaped the rewards of victory.

I was now a one-legged man on a mission with no excuses and no limits.

My determination to succeed physically in the gym gave me the power to take control of my life back. After 7 years of pain and suffering, I was active, strong, confident and loving life again.

The most rewarding part of my fitness journey has been having the ability to inspire people to get out and make improvements in their own lives. With the loss of my leg I have gained an incredible gift: the awesome ability to teach people that it doesn’t matter what challenges life has thrown at you, you can accomplish anything you want with determination and hard work.

So why do I do what I do? Today I wake up each morning, swing my one leg out of bed, put on my prosthetic leg and begin my rewarding day as a personal trainer. I don’t give having one leg a thought, because as my wife says, I am the most able person she knows. None of this happened by accident; I became a strong, confident, 100% able amputee by pushing and challenging myself through grueling workouts at the gym.

I lost my disability and got my life back in the gym. Now it’s my turn to guide, support and push others to overcome their challenges, discover their capabilities and give up their excuses. I will help them discover how exercise can give them confidence, improve their lives and give them what I call the “feeling of strong”.

I do it for my clients: a sixty-year-old who has spent the past decades taking care of everyone but herself and now fears for her mobility through her retirement years, along with an ex drug addict and a recovering alcoholic who signed on with me in search of healthier habits. I do it to help the young guy living with the challenge of Spina bifida improve his leg strength and balance, and to show a new young amputee in the gym, searching for his answers, that anything is possible.

Today, working as a personal trainer means I spend up to 8-hour shifts on my feet. I am in constant motion, moving around the gym and demonstrating exercises. By the end of the day I can’t wait to kick my leg off and give my stump a rest. Yet I will take it, considering that three and a half years ago I gave up on an active life to settle for a desk job. What I have accomplished in the 19 months since amputation blows my mind every single day. If I can do it, anyone can.

Take a peek into what a small part of my day is like.

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The seventh surgery was the amputation of my lower left leg. At that point I was no longer looking for a normal life, I was just looking for one without constant throbbing, mind-numbing pain. Besides, could I really ever have a normal life as an amputee? Would anyone really ever treat me normally? Would people always think I needed assistance? And my biggest fear, would people just feel sorry for me?

I am happy and proud to say that 17 months post leg amputation, I have achieved a normal life. Yes, of course I am an amputee. I am missing my lower left leg, I use a prosthetic leg and when not using the prosthetic leg I use crutches. Yes, I deal with donning a leg, cleaning prosthetic liners, adding/removing layers of prosthetic socks, skin irritations and prosthetic discomfort daily. And yes, every once in a while I think about how nice it must be to have two healthy legs, not needing a prosthetic or crutches to walk. Regardless, I have achieved a normal life.

The following are the things that have allowed me to achieve what I call a “normal” life.

First, I fully accept being an amputee. My stump has just become part of my body, while the prosthetic and crutches are the parts I attach to my body to give me mobility. I never hide my stump, I never hide my prosthetic, and I view my crutches as tools that help me, not symbols of disability. In fact, my crutches are my slippers. Just as you like to kick off your shoes after a long day and slip into comfy slippers. I like to kick off my shoe, kick off my leg and slip on to my crutches. Accepting being an amputee also requires being comfortable talking about it. I invite questions and conversation about being an amputee, and I constantly make jokes about it. The people who know me make jokes right back because they know it’s okay and I enjoy it. Fully accepting being an amputee takes being comfortable with your new body, being comfortable with having others see your stump and prosthetic, being willing to incorporate a back-up method of ambulation into your daily life, such as crutches, and having a willingness to openly discuss being an amputee with others.

Second, I present myself as a confident and very capable person. Therefore, that is how people treat me. My fears of having people feel sorry for me and think I need assistance have not become a reality. They don’t think this because I give them no reason to. Whether I am using my prosthetic or my crutches, I present myself as a confident, capable person and that is how I am treated. Recently I had a conversation with a member at the gym where I work. We first met a year ago while I was taking an highly intensive exercise class. In the class I was not wearing my prosthetic, just hopping around one legged and conquering the moves better than the rest of the class. She said to me, “I never felt sorry for you, because you don’t give people any reason to.” Given this wonderful complement, how could I not feel I have achieved a normal life?

Third, I became determined to live my life without limitations. There really is nothing I don’t do. In fact, I do more than what most healthy two-legged people do. I ask and accept no further assistance than anyone else would have or need. I made myself completely capable and independent by learning to do things one legged, with crutches or with the prosthetic. This way I never find myself disabled. I immersed myself into physical fitness and sport. Through my fitness workouts I’ve gain incredible balance, strength and endurance. This has resulted in being a confident and very capable person who can lead a normal life.

Fourth, the thing that has most made me realize that I have truly achieved normal life is my new career. I work as a personal trainer at a very busy gym. I train people less than half my age with twice as many legs who aspire to do what I can. It is just mind-blowing! Each day I show up to work I am the only amputee there, however the only thing different between me any of the other trainers is basically “cosmetic” – my robotic leg. I work with trainers half my age and recently competed in a physical challenge with them. I didn’t win the challenge, but I didn’t finish last by any means. If the prosthesis is not seen, no one has any idea there is anything different about me. But I never cover it; I wear shorts every day and display being an amputee with pride. I do my job 100% with no accommodations, always present myself as a confident trainer, and there is no one in that gym – clients, supervisors or coworkers – that treats me one bit different or expects any less of me then they would anyone else. Yes, I am asked daily about how I lost my leg by clients and members, but that’s great as it shows I’m approachable and once again normal. I leap on 30” boxes, flip 175 lb. tires, perform 100 burpees in a row, all on one leg without my prosthesis. Wearing my prosthesis, I broad jump 7 to 8 ft, leap, skip and lunge forward, backward and laterally. While training clients and teaching classes, I tell one-legged jokes and often pull my leg off just to prove anything is possible. Yet, I walk through the gym, train clients and teach high-intensity metabolic classes, demonstrating each exercise, not giving being an amputee a thought with a feeling of complete normalcy.

Me far left with my Challenge team.

So what do I consider “normal” life?

• When after 7 years of sitting on the couch watching my wife and kids decorate our 13ft Christmas tree, this past Christmas, I climbed up and down the ladder without thought.
  When my wife and kids feel comfortable asking me to do all the normal husband and dad things
• When I hop out of bed, grab my crutches and begin my day without giving missing a leg or how I will get through the day a thought. I don’t need to, as I know I will conquer anything that comes my way.
• When the words ‘grocery store’, ‘Target’ or ‘school open house’ no longer send me into panic. I just get in the car and go.
• When I am out in the world doing my business and I have no idea if people are staring at my leg or lack of leg, because it’s the farthest thing from my focus.
• When I realize I no longer plan and worry about how everyday household tasks will get done – I just do them.
• When my daily stresses are about not having enough time in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done as opposed to not being able to accomplish them due to my leg.
• When I realize I am doing a very physically active job and doing it no differently than anyone else.
• When my wife says, “You’re the most able person I know.”
• When I’m waiting in a line for our take-out and the guy next to me looks like I did two years ago (clearly in pain, having difficulty bearing weight on his leg), and I realize no one in the line has any idea I have a fake leg under my pants.

Accomplishing a normal life, as a leg amputee, did not come by chance. I don’t have any magical superpowers or super expensive high-tech equipment. In fact, I don’t even have a running leg. It took the strong desire not to be a disabled husband/father, an immense amount of determination, the hardest work I have ever done and never allowing myself to feel anything other than 100% capable. It also doesn’t mean life is easy. Living without a limb is not easy; I have just accepted the challenges and don’t make them the focus of my life. Instead, I focus on living life to the fullest and without limitations.

Unknown Source

Statements that only a leg amputee would say.

I was discussing the process of learning to walk with my prosthetic leg and talking about how I would not be able to wear it all day at first. I say:

“I will have to take my leg off and carry it home.”

One day while sitting on the examining table, waiting for my prosthesis to come back with my leg, there was a knock on the door. A man opened the door and asked if my prosthesis was there. I respond:

“No, he is fixing my leg somewhere.”

This was a text response to my wife. She had text me to see what my afternoon plan was. I was currently at my prosthesis picking up my first leg and then heading to the gym for my training secession. I was leaving the prosthetist office with my leg on for the first time and there was no way I was training with it on at that point. My responding text read:

“I will need to stop home for gym clothes. And to take off my leg, I guess.”

This statement came from a discussion on how I was going to air travel, as an amputee, for the first time. I didn’t want to wear my leg on the plane and I didn’t want to risk it getting lost checking as luggage.

“I need a carry-on bag that my leg will fit in.”

This statement was said to me during a conversation while I was struggling to get accustomed to the prosthetic.

“Just keep working on being an awesome one-legged guy.”

We were having hot water tank problems, so while on the phone with the heating and cooling company, they asked me a question that required looking at the hot water tank. Without giving it a thought, I say:

“I don’t have my leg on, so it will take me a few minutes.”

By the confused response he gave, I realized he had no idea I was an amputee.

Skiing

As I skied by two small kids, one says to the other:

Unknown Source

“Look, that man only has one leg.”
The friend responds:

“That’s because he lost the other one.” (Do you think it is lying on the hill somewhere?)

I was standing in front of the ski lodge on my one ski and outriggers when a man says to me:

“Looks like you are having fun, I love to do that.” (What, cut your leg off and ski?)

I pass two little girls on the stairs. One girl says to the other:

“Look at that man.”
The other girl responds:
“He lost his foot.” (I hope I find it some day!)

Amputee skiing benefit: You don’t have to worry about crossing your ski tips and you never end up with your skis tangled during a wipeout.

Kids

My 4-year-old niece is messing around with me when she stops with a confused look on her face and says:

“Uncle Darryl, why do you have two feet?”

I was wearing my prosthesis.

She also has referred to it as my “toy leg.”

Unknown Source

Taking a spinning class and learning to ride my bike.

This text came after having my leg fall off during my first spinning class I took. The dilemma: How do I keep my leg from falling off?

Me: “Please sign me into spin for Friday. In the meantime I will purchase a roll of duct tape!”

My Trainer: “Remind me tomorrow, I think it’s 24 hours in advance.
The gorilla tape actually seems even stronger, lol.”

This text was after I fell off my bike and rotated my foot.

“Wait until you hear my biking story – luckily you can fix a fake leg with an Allen wrench!”

“The good news is that I can pedal a bike, I just have to figure out how to keep the leg on.”

At the gym

A random guy at the gym stops and says:

“Wow, I didn’t know you had a bionic leg! That’s great! Can you run?”
(He was trying to say that just by watching me walk you would never know I had a prosthetic leg, but he made it sound like a prosthetic leg was better than a real one.)

Anther guy stops me to say:

“My son calls you Iron Man. I thought you might like to tell your friends that.”

As a personal trainer I am currently a team captain of a transformation challenge team. The slogan on the back of my team’s tee shirt:

“We have a leg up on the competition!”

I will leave you with more of a funny story.

While sitting at PF Changs having dinner, the waitress comes by to fill our water glasses. Suddenly she realizes that she was pouring water onto my (fake) foot instead of in my glass. She panics and start apologizing profusely. I say:

“Not a problem, it isn’t real, I can’t feel a thing,” while pulling up my pant leg.

I’m not certain, but I think she might have given up waitressing after that.

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In the gym, January seems to be the month to work out. The gym is flooded with people who made their New Year’s resolution to get their bodies in shape. There’s nothing wrong with that, and maybe a small percent will actually achieve it. As a trainer I hope to convert some of these resolutions into lifestyle changes. Unfortunately, the majority of these people will show up, play around on the exercise equipment for a few weeks, see no results and give up by March.

Why will the majority of the New Year’s Resolution gym-goers give up?
They made it a New Year’s resolution, not a lifestyle commitment.
1. A New Year’s resolution to get in better physical shape is too broad, and therefore not attainable.
2. After a few weeks, no results were felt or seen.
3. No time; couldn’t fit it into their schedule.

Living a healthier lifestyle needs to be a habit, not a New Year’s resolution. To commit to living a healthier lifestyle you need to break it down into attainable goals. You need to set goals and then meet each goal so you can reap the rewards of feeling and seeing results. It is then that exercise becomes a healthy life habit, not just a resolution.

How to Set Fitness Goals

While you want to set your goals high, it is important to be realistic when setting them. In other words, your long-term goal might be high, however you should start by breaking that goal down into smaller goals that will eventually get you to the long-term goal. You want to challenge yourself, but if the goals are unrealistic they will lead to failure or injury. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART Goals).

Specific: Goals need to be clear and direct. Fifteen push-ups with proper form is a clear goal.
Measurable: Fifteen push-ups is measurable. You will know when the goal has been accomplished.
Attainable: Fifteen push-ups is most likely attainable. 275 lb deadlifts would not be attainable for that same person.
Realistic: Completing a 5K is realistic, while running a marathon is much more difficult. While running the marathon might be your long-term goal, the 5k will be attainable in a shorter amount of time. So focus on the 5K, not the marathon.
Timely: While 275 deadlifts and running a marathon might be long-term goals, they need to be broken down into small steps. Accomplishing goals in a short period of time will make you feel successful.

When goals are reached in a short period of time you will feel accomplished and empowered to continue to reach for higher goals.

The following are my top picks of goals that will change your life.

Focus on the psychological benefits of exercise, not what you see
We all know that exercise is associated with weight loss and better physical health. The problem is that just knowing that isn’t necessarily going to get us to the gym. The best motivator comes from the psychological benefits physical activity has. These psychological benefits will ultimately make exercise a habit.

Exercises builds muscle strength, boosts endurance and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. By adding regular physical activity into your daily routine you will make your daily living much easier.

Our bodies have something called endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals in the brain that reduce pain and affect our mood. Physical activity stimulates these chemicals and can make you feel happier and more relaxed.

Exercise is an antidepressant. Research has shown that exercise can stimulate the growth of neurons in the brain that depression damages. Doing sustained vigorous exercises three times a week can actually work as effectively as taking antidepressants.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/slideshows/7-mind-blowing-benefits-of-exercise/3

You need to feel the high. High-intensity exercise can leave you on a natural high better than any drug you could ever take. If you are willing to push yourself in a high-intensity workout or push your limits to accomplish higher physical goals, you will leave the gym feeling amazing. It is then that you start to feel euphoric and exercise becomes addictive.

The primary goal needs to be to adopt a new lifestyle that includes regular exercise. In order to do this you must feel the psychological results of exercise. It is then that you can start to sculpt your body by changing body composition.

Get out of your comfort zone
If you enter the gym and head off to the treadmill for a half hour and then spend the next half hour on a few weight machines, exercise will become mundane. Not only that, but you will most likely not see or feel the results you are looking for. So you give up. Instead, make your workouts fun and interesting. Get out of your comfort zone, try new classes, leave the machines and learn new ways to workout. TRX, bodyweight exercise, boxing, battle ropes, box jumps, tire flips or circuit training are all good ways to mix it up and get the most out of your workouts. Your body will also respond better to adding different things to your workout regime.

Set yourself a goal of stepping out of your comfort zone and learning a new workout.

Master one skill at a time
Depending on where you are physically, the goal can start out small. It could be mastering a sit-up, running a quarter mile on the treadmill, holding a plank for 20 seconds or a small box jump. What is important is that you work to meet the goal and then challenge yourself to a new, more difficult goal.

Make fitness a part of your routine
The number one reason people give for not exercising is “no time”.

We all have busy lives, however we find time to have our cars maintained, our homes maintained and yards maintained, yet we don’t find the time to maintain our most important asset: our bodies. Turn your workout into the time you carve out of your day for yourself. That hour of the day will pay off in spades for you, your friends and your family. Turn your stress, anger and frustrations into fuel you burn at the gym. The results will be a happier, healthier, more productive and well-maintained you. If I am having a crappy day or feeling down, I head for the gym and put myself through a strenuous workout. I leave the gym with sweat pouring off me, my heart rate elevated and exhausted, but at the same time I feel exhilarated and like a new man.

Train for an event
One of the best ways I have found to set goals and achieve them is to sign up for an event. If I sign up for a challenging event I become determined to do whatever it takes to successfully complete it.
I signed up for the Tour-de-Cure, a bike ride event that benefits the American Diabetes Association, even though I had not yet given biking with the prosthetic leg a try. The two months leading up to the ride I spent pushing myself and training to complete a 30-mile bike ride. I did the same after signing up for the TRX certification course and the Warrior Dash.

Find a 5K and sign up a few months in advance, then spend those six weeks training for the race. After you experience the exhilaration of finishing the event you worked so hard training for, it might just become a fitness habit.

Make 2016 the year you throw out the New Year’s resolutions and change your life. Make living a healthy lifestyle a habit by setting SMART fitness goals. The best way to start is to join a gym and work with a personal trainer. A personal trainer will help you set your fitness goals, ensure you are exercising properly and motivate you to continue.

Set goals for yourself all year long, not just in January.

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Sources:

NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training

The gym that I belong to, which has been a huge part of my life for the past year, uses the phrase “reinVENT yourself” as its motto. The VENT comes from the name of the gym being VENT Fitness. The phrase refers to making positive changes in your life through exercise. I never really gave the phrase much thought until recently, mainly because I have spent the past ten weeks participating in the reinVENT challenge. In thinking about the past ten weeks, it occurred to me how fitting the idea of “reinVENT yourself” has been for the past year of my life.

I am 50 years old, have a balding head and one foot in the grave (literally). Yet I feel as if I am getting younger, not older. Physically and mentally I feel healthy, young and ready to take on the many challenges of life. This is not how I felt a year ago and it didn’t happen by chance. It took a true commitment to exercise, diet and grueling workouts that challenged my whole body. It also took determination, putting the work in and never cheating myself.

What kept me going back? The harder I worked out in the gym, the better I felt leaving the gym. Soon my body craved the workouts. My mind craved the challenge and my life outside the gym became easier. The gym became the hour of the day I carved out for me. The place I released the problems of the day and unleashed any negativity of the day. If something or someone had upset me that day, I jumped higher, slammed the medicine ball harder, perfected a new trick and left the gym feeling like a new man.

Life brings about so many challenges. They come in many different forms, and I don’t believe anyone is truly spared from life’s challenges. My challenge was learning to live with an amputation, my lower left leg. I had two choices: to feel sorry for myself or to get off the couch and live. I chose to live, to not let the loss of my leg stop me from accomplishing anything I wanted to do. So I went to work setting physical goals and putting the determination and work necessary into meeting each of them.

It was in November of 2014, six weeks after becoming a below-knee amputee, when I took on the challenge of becoming a strong, fit and capable one-legged guy. I signed on with Holly as my personal trainer. I had no idea what I would accomplish, but Holly joined me, guided me and pushed me in an incredible adventure. An adventure with an outcome I don’t think anyone could have ever predicted. The more Holly pushed, the more I challenged myself, the easier my daily life as an amputee became. Holly and I were a perfect team. I would say, “I want to do a box jump someday” and Holly immediately provided the box and said, “What are you waiting for?” Before I knew it I was leaping on 30” boxes, flipping tires, planking on two medicine balls and signing up for physical challenges outside the gym that I had no idea how to achieve. With each one of them I grew into the person who could accomplish them and reaped the rewards of victory.

Just as life seemed to have leveled off, a new challenge was thrown on me. Two years ago I took my first desk job. I trained and focused on a desk job due to my leg and the need for crutches to walk. The job served its propose. It got me back into the work force, gave me confidence and provided income. However, in the past year I had outgrown the job. My life went back to being physical and active, and no longer required being strapped to a desk eight hours a day. However, it was safe and an area of my life I didn’t want to disrupt. Unfortunately, the position was grant funded, the grant money ran out and no new grants could be secured. This meant I was once again out of a job.

The phone call was devastating. How could this be? How could I possible find the strength to start over and find a job yet again? Fifty-year-old men should be long invested in their careers, have job security and be saving for retirement, not picking up the pieces from lost jobs every few years and starting over. Unfortunately, my circumstances haven’t allowed for that, and as my supervisor stated, “I am not worried about you. You are a survivor, you will figure this out, push forward and be okay. That is who you are.” So that is what I will do.

While I immediately went to work applying to every job I could find and went to several interviews, the jobs were all low-paying dead-end positions. Jobs I knew I would once again outgrow and which had no growth potential. The answer to what I should do seemed crystal clear. So I decided to view this as a positive opportunity to follow my heart and once again do a job I could be passionate about and help others in. It all fell together as if it were meant to be. I will be joining VENT Fitness as a personal trainer.

The most rewarding part of my fitness journey has been having the ability to inspire people to get out and make improvements in their own lives. With the loss of my leg I have gained an incredible gift – the awesome ability to teach people that it doesn’t matter what challenges life has thrown at you, you can accomplish anything you want with determination and hard work.

Now it will be my turn to guide and push others through their journeys to overcome their life challenges and improve their lives. It doesn’t matter if it they are a sixty-year-old person who has spent the past decade sedentary and now needs to improve their health, an overweight person looking to lose weight, or another amputee searching for their independence. The research is clear that regular physical exercise can improve their health and wellbeing. I am the living example that you can overcome your challenges and of how physical exercise can improve our lives.

Though physical fitness my life has truly been transformed. A little over a year ago I was living a life of pain, surgeries and disability. I became an amputee looking for normalcy and physically independence. I am now a healthy, strong, confident man, living a highly active life and starting a new career as a one-legged personal trainer. I’m living it and it still blows my mind! My journey will continue by helping others to overcome their challenges and meet their goals. Using VENT Fitness’s phrase, I will be guiding others to “reinVENT” themselves.

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Right foot, Right foot, Ossur foot? That’s right – in my house, on my street and in my town, my Ossur foot is the interesting foot that you might meet. People are always quite impressed with it and I get a kick out of showing it off. They are intrigued with its techy, gadget look that is unlike any other prosthetic leg they have seen. And it’s when I do my little dance to show the range of motion my Re-Flex Shock has that they get impressed. If they are lucky I do a few squat jumps just to show off a bit.

I have now had my Ossur foot for about two months and it has changed how I walk with my prosthesis dramatically. I roll through my steps effortlessly. It’s an amazing feeling that I am so grateful for and will never take for granted.

Prosthetic legs are expensive, and insurance only pays for one at a time. So I wanted a foot that would give me good function for all my activities. Or the best possible you could get in one foot. I needed it to offer the best vertical shock absorption for high-impact activities and still function for basic walking. Therefore, I did my research and found the foot that I felt was best for my highly active life.

Here are the magic words that convinced me that this was the right foot: “Re-Flex Shock with EVO offers the best vertical shock absorption of all the Össur mechanical feet. With dynamic energy return and all around responsiveness the foot is a great choice for active users. The composite spring in front provides optimal shock absorption that reduces impact subjected to the body. Enhancing both control and comfort during walking and other activities. This is a real heavy-duty foot for all sorts of activities and high-impact sports” (taken from Ossur website).

I had read the specifications on many prosthetic feet, and the Re-Flex Shock was the one that kept standing out in my mind. I also watched videos of different people discussing their feet and demonstrating what they could do. While all very impressive, the video that struck me the most was one that featured a Re-Flex Shock user called Jim Bonney. Jim heads up a unique rehab organization for amputees called Adventure Rehab (www.adventurerehab.co.uk). By the way, someday I would love start a similar organization. He was living without limits and doing it all on his Re-Flex Shock foot. The vision that kept playing in my head was watching him running through the woods, leaping on and off logs, rocks, and any obstacle that was in his way. As I watched the video over and over, I could see and feel myself running through that woods. It reminded me of how I once navigated the wilderness and I yearned to do again.

With my research in my pocket, I arrived in my prosthetist’s office for my new leg fitting appointment and pulled out my document where I had compared three high-end prosthetic feet; my prosthetist’s go-to foot, the Re-Flex Shock and another comparable foot. He couldn’t argue with what it said about the Re-Flex Shock and agreed that I would not be able run through the woods jumping over logs with the foot he was recommending. A few weeks later I was the first patient to ever walk out of his office with the Re-Flex Shock.

Two months in, I absolutely love my Re-Flex Shock foot. It has made walking so much more natural and comfortable. Walking was something I never thought I would enjoy again. Now with my Re-Flex Shock foot I walk a mile or two each day during my afternoon break and very much enjoy it. I roll through my steps effortlessly and am able to maintain a natural gait. With pants on, people have no idea that I don’t have two natural feet. How it looks is good, but it is the function that is important and that is what I love.

A negative of prosthetic legs is that the foot and ankle are ridged, heavy and have no energy. When you step you get no response or shock resistance, which puts stress on the residual leg. It also makes a natural gait difficult to achieve, putting stress on the sound leg. My foot is energized by EVO (Energy Vector Optimization). EVO controls how the ground reaction force is transferred to the prosthetic foot. It’s sort of like the mechanics of your natural foot helping reduce stress on your leg, knee and hip as you step, absorbing the impact of the ground. This enables an amputee to develop a natural gait, which reduces future problems with the sound leg. When they say it has “dynamic energy return and all-around responsiveness”, they are not kidding. It really does. In fact there are times when I feel like it is alive. One of my favorite experiences with it is when I’m doing something that requires standing for a while, like everyone else I transfer weight from one foot to the other. As I transfer weight over on to my prosthetic, the foot/ankle shifts and adjust. It is an amazing feeling that always makes me smile.

While outside walking I can go from smooth surfaces to rough irregular surfaces without giving it a thought. Concrete to grass to gravel, and the foot makes all the adjustments. I can go from flat surface to incline without missing a step. I can walk slow, fast, climb stairs and break into a run. At the gym, I can do jumping jacks, squat jumps, and throw boxing punches and kicks with no ill effects from the impact. I have even run up to three miles with my Re-Flex Shock. I am happy to say that it really does meet all my needs, and best of all it makes walking so much more pleasurable. For serious running I will still need a running blade, but I believe my Ossur Re-Flex Shock foot is as close to a natural foot and ankle I can get.

My prosthesist has even stated while watching me walk, “Wow, that foot really does do everything Ossur says it does.” The Re-Flex Shock has been the final piece to restoring my active life.

Having the ability to walk on two feet is an incredible thing. Every day I am grateful that I have been given the gift of walking again. Thank you Ossur!

Disclaimer – The Re-Flex Shock foot is wonderful and everything I said is true. However, please don’t misunderstand, it is still only part of the prosthesis. It is not a natural leg and no matter how advanced the foot is, there will still be stump discomfort after wearing it all day. I am comparing prosthetics to prosthetics, not to a natural leg and foot. The Re-Flex Shock has given me the ability to be more active, work the leg harder and walk for longer periods of time with a whole lot less discomfort.

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No complaints, the prosthetic has certainly improved my life. I can’t deny that being able to walk around with it is an incredible thing. It all looks good to the onlookers and most people react like all my problems are over when seeing me walk. And with my pant leg down, others have quickly forgotten I am an amputee. Yet what they don’t realize is what goes on behind the scenes just for a leg amputee to walk.

The leg itself is easy to slip on – it’s the liner that requires the messy work.

My liner is a custom state-of-the-art liner made by Ottobock. It was made just for me using a cast of my stump. Once on, it fits like a second skin and is quite comfortable for what it is. However, problems can creep up, and if you don’t follow the necessary protocol, things can go downhill very quickly.

Donning the liner involves the following steps:

Apply cream on stump

liner

Turn liner inside out

Step 1. Apply cream to stump liberally. Without the cream the skin will get abrasions.
Step 2. Turn the liner inside out.

Add cream

Step 3. Squirt cream down into the liner while still inside out (outside is the inside at this point). Then manipulate the liner so the entire outside is covered. Liner against liner creates too much friction to allow the liner to roll on without using the cream as lubricant.
Step 4. Position the end of the liner on the end of the stump, with the blue dots lined up with the tibia on the front of stump.

Step 5. Roll the liner onto stump.

Roll liner on

Step 6. Then use a towel to clean off the cream on the outsideof the liner.
Step 7. Add sock/socks and always carry an extra sock with you. The stump volume can shrink as you go through the day.

By the time the leg is on I have used two different creams. The quality one that Ottobock recommends goes between skin and liner, so I don’t want to mess around with a cheaper substitute. For the cream that is used as a lubricant on the outside of the liner, I find the most inexpensive cream I can, so I don’t waste the good stuff. I have used three or four sheets of paper towels to clean up the cream and ultimately end up with cream on my clothing or the surrounding furniture. Yes, my wife has learned where to stock up on the cheapest paper towels. They don’t need to absorb, as they are only used to wipe off the cream from the outside of the liner. I’ve successfully used toilet paper in the men’s room.

The following stories are two examples of my behind-the-scenes liner troubles.

Flatulence sounds during the meeting

My leg adjustment station!

One morning while in a meeting, I could feel air bubbles creeping up my stump between my skin and the prosthetic liner. I didn’t think much about it as this is a common thing. It was when I got up and took a couple steps to help my boss with the computer that things got awkward. Each time I put weight down air was dispersed from the liner, making a loud flatulence sound. To avoid further humiliation I sort of hopped back to my seat, not bearing weight down on the prosthetic. As soon as the meeting ended and the room cleared, I made my way to my desk, grabbed my tubes of cream and an extra sock, then made a beeline towards the men’s room. Each step of the way I could feel the air bubbling in the liner as it was being expelled, transmitting farting sounds. Entering the men’s room I grabbed three or four paper towels and headed for the nearest stall. I was now sitting on the toilet with my pants down around my ankles, as I can’t access the leg with pants on, removing my leg. After ascertaining that the liner was no longer on properly, I roll it off the stump while the warm milky liquid (sweat/cream mixture) pours out onto the paper towel I have placed on the floor to catch the mess. I now need to get this slimy, sticky, grossly-warm liner back onto the stump. Honestly, the warm combination of sweat and cream is repulsive even for me to touch. I pull the tube of cream from my pocket and squirt some down in the liner. Next I place the liner in position and attempt to roll it onto my stump. This is like trying to catch a greased pig. My hands are slimy and the part of the liner I have to touch is gloopy, so this is no easy task. Finally, when the liner is correctly placed, I take a few more paper towels to wipe the cream off the outside of the liner. I then don the prosthetic sock and place my stump down into the socket of the leg. After the sleeve is pulled up, I pull my pants up, buckle up my belt and exit the stall. As I emerge from the stall any other man in the men’s room assumes I was just doing my business. They hadn’t a clue I’d just spent ten minutes perched on a toilet making leg adjustments just so I could walk.

Sloshing through the gym

I feel her pain!

Now that I have my definitive leg and it is comfortable for activity beyond walking, I have branched out by taking some new classes at the gym. The two classes I have taken up are Boxing Boot Camp and Strike. Both of these classes combine boxing with bodyweight exercises. The classes are pretty intense and the sweat that comes off my body could solve the California drought. Strike involves going through a series of stations. Each station lasts for thirty seconds and alternates boxing moves and bodyweight exercises on the floor. So for a half hour I am up and down, up and down, up and down with a 20-second rest here and there. When the class is over I look as if I have been standing in the rain. As I leave the room dripping in sweat, I feel my stump slipping in the liner. With each step it feels as if I have a rubber boot on that is filled with a couple inches of water. All the way to the locker room I am gingerly walking, sloshing in the liner with every step. Panicked that the slipping will cause blisters, I didn’t want to wait until I got home to fix the problem. I am also without my tubes of cream, causing me fear that if I took the liner off, I would not get it back on. I would then be hopping on one leg all the way to my car. So I sat on a bench in the locker room, took off the leg, and saw that the liner had slipped down about two inches. Without cream or paper towels available (hand blowers), I did the best I could to remedy the situation. I took my hands and pressed against the liner, moving from the bottom to the top. This acted as a squeegee, pushing the moisture up out of the liner while moving it back into place. I managed to get it fixed enough to don the leg again and get home. We won’t talk about the puddles left on the locker room carpet. I departed the locker room and no one in the gym had any idea of the dilemma I’d spent ten fifteen minutes creatively resolving just to walk.

I have no complaints; in fact, when I tell these stories I punch them up and use expression to make them entertaining. I also understand that when people see me walking, what looks to be natural and with the prosthetic covered by my pant leg, it is easy to forget. What never ceases to amuse me are the comments and reactions I’ve received from people that make it seem like a “miracle” has occurred and the leg has grown back.

The advancements in prosthetics have certainly changed my life, but having a prosthetic leg is not a luxury. It is a necessary tool we use so we can walk just like everyone else. The prosthetic doesn’t create the “miracle” – your attitude does.

It’s all good as long as I don’t leave home without my two tubes of cream, a couple of extra socks and several sheets of paper towels.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to find the humor in your life dilemmas!

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