A Few Vignettes

I have been reflecting a good bit on why this blog has been hard for me to write. Actually, with each entry it has become decreasingly difficult, so I think the exercise has become therapeutic. I have felt very resistant to being candid about the fact that I have no foot. Why? Well, it's different. Most folks have two feet and I have one. I've never enjoyed being singled out for anything and have always preferred the behind-the-scenes jobs when I've had a choice. But, writing about my experiences has given me some freedom from the fear of what others may think. Anyway, I thought I would share some mostly-humorous vignettes of experiences I've had over the years related to being an amputee.

When our 9 year old son saw this, he exclaimed, "Is that YOU in there?!"  No, but that was the point we were trying to make to the county roads division. They repeatedly filled in this sink hole on our street with asphalt and it repeatedly eroded away. So, we set up this photo by placing my unoccupied prosthesis in the sinkhole and sent it along to the county to make a point. They did finally repair the hole properly.




My sister Mary reminded me of this story. She and I played high school field hockey together. Field hockey is a fall sport and in the summer, in order to swim, we had to apply a rubber sleeve over my prosthesis to keep it from getting wet. So, the rubber sleeve was still in place as we competed in a field hockey game one fall afternoon. Good thing. The rubber sleeve was not a perfect system and over the summer, the moisture must have corroded the bolt that attached my prosthetic foot to the socket. As I ran down the field during the game, I felt something snap in my foot. I knew immediately that my foot had snapped off of the socket, but because the rubber sleeve was still in place, the foot remained in place. I couldn't continue in the game, so I had to call for a time-out, telling my coach that my foot had fallen off! We did have a good laugh over that, though I think the other team was a bit confused....

Somewhere in my 'tweens, I was priveleged to be invited on a Florida family vacation with my good friend Melissa. We traveled in their RV. One day after a swim, I briefly left my prosthesis upside-down in the tub to dry. Melissa's brother Scott later opened the bathroom door, and had quite a shock when he first spied a leg sticking out of the tub!

After I moved to the Chesapeake Bay area, some friends and I decided to take sailing lessons. After completing our lessons, my friend Jean and I borrowed my then-friend's-but-future-husband's day sailer for an afternoon of sailing. We were having a great time until we tried to come about with the jib too tight and the boat almost capsized. Jean, being a more experienced sailor than I, released the jib in time to right the boat, but it was pretty well swamped. Having no instrument with which to bail the boat, I looked at Jean and said, "Wait! We can use my prosthesis to bail!" So, I took off my prosthesis and it worked like a charm. We had her bailed and were on our way back to the dock (we'd had enough sailing for that day) in no time.