Learning to Walk Again

As great as it feels for the cancerous foot to be gone, with it comes the inability to walk without assistance. This was already a problem even before my amputation -- after my biopsy, it was difficult for me to walk without the assistance of crutches. I was told to use crutches for the first two days afterwards, but once that period was over, I still found it difficult to walk without them. The reason became clear just before my amputation. Though the biopsy was performed in a nonintrusive fashion, so as not to disrupt my ability to walk -- a needle was inserted into one of the lesions in the foot to remove material there, and some scrapings were taken from the top of the lesion in the shin -- lumps had begun to form in those spots. Cancer cells must have been filling parts of the biopsied area where normal bone had previously been, compromising my foot and with it my ability to walk. Naturally, I was most glad to be rid of them, but that also meant I was never going to have that foot's function back ever again.

The physical and occupational therapists in the hospital were able to get me walking with a walker and crutches during my recovery from surgery, but that's very limited mobility. Full restoration will require a prosthesis. Thankfully, that process is underway. I received clearance from my surgeon at the end of January after he examined what remained of my lower left leg. I made an appointment at the nearby office of a nationally known prosthetic company recommended to me by a friend who is an orthopedic surgery resident, and from there, things progressed quickly. The lower part of my left leg would first need to shrink from its current size to fit a prosthesis. This is an inevitable process, as muscles there that I am not going to be using anymore are going to atrophy, but there are things to wear to speed the process along and ensure the limb is prepared for the prosthesis. I started with a tight shrinker sock to put over it. The next item I received was a silicone sleeve that rolled up to a little over the knee, shortly after I was disconnected from the IVs from my second chemo administration. At that time, a cast was also taken of the part of knee that was in the sleeve -- I'll be wearing that sleeve whenever I'm wearing the prosthesis. From that cast, I will be made a temporary prosthesis that I will use until the shrinking process is complete. Then, I will get a permanent prosthesis.

I am expecting to receive my temporary prosthesis in a week or two, but I was given something else last Tuesday: a test socket to practice walking in! I can currently only walk with the help of crutches, but it feels a lot better than using crutches or a walker without it, and I can go for much longer distances. Here is a video of some of my first steps in the prosthetist's office: