Never Say Never

In 1977, after my bike accident that left me with a brain injury and multiple amputations, I began to wonder how many activities I would be able to participate in. So I asked the doctors while still in the hospital. Their answer was flawed, as they provided me with a long list of activities that I would not be able to do, including riding bicycles, playing tennis, snow skiing, etc. In the 12 months that followed, I was able to understand why I could not do all of these activities, as I was hardly able to do more than walk in the first 2 dysfunctional prostheses. But once I had my first good prosthesis in 1978, and for the next decade or so, I found myself seeking out all these prohibited activities subconsciously. This took much of my time and energy seeking, planning, learning, and trying those activities, until I became good at almost all of them.

Then, about a dozen years or so later, it dawned on me that I was seeking most of these activities only to prove something, subconsciously perhaps. Once I became self aware that I was wasting much time and energy doing things that I had no interest in, I started on a corrected course. Going forward, I started to only work on the activities that I like. Here is my point, those of us with short amputations, we have limited daily energy on our feet, which is less than standard size amputations, and certainly much less than what we used to have before losing a leg. So, I started using this limited daily energy wisely by doing the things that I want to do and the things that are meaningful to me. With a few exceptions, I am able to do just about anything that I set my mind to, and I am considered to be a top performer in my amputation and prosthesis class.