Month: September 2025

A Work In Progress

A Work In Progress

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Taking Action During “Construction”

 

 

We are all a work in progress. That’s life, right? We all have those moments where you feel you are working on something in your life. Your health, a career, or relationships, you name it.

But what do you do in these moments? How do you continue to grow and better yourself during the construction?

It all starts within you. We begin by working on ourselves.

Right now, while I would rather be working out, being with my horses, and hiking, I can barely walk around my house due to having to use a test socket that is uncomfortable and rubbing me raw. And during this time, I am feeling miserable! I was trying to kick start my health since surgery but have hit moments where I need to work on patience, and heal. Now I feel so far removed from being in shape and that takes a toll on my mental game. Now that I’m in this situation I cannot get to my horses because it’s too hard to walk on normal surfaces, imagine walking across uneven ground of rock, sand and dirt.

 

 

This is my time to focus on my thoughts and heart. This is a time I am put into a slow down phase and being led to work on what I can.

 

How do we go about working on ourselves? We start with seeing the good in the world, seeing the good in our situation and finding joy in the moment despite your circumstances. Next we can assume the best, meaning when we assume the best in a person we can control our emotions much better which leads us to less anger and frustration and more joy. Finally, we must act!

 

 

 

This week we must ACT! Not when we feel it or when joyfulness is in us, but rather right now! Maybe you are struggling or hurting right now. This is the time to look outside of yourself and your situation and reach out to another human, your neighbor, to spread joy and positivity.

Maybe you check in on a neighbor, share a conversation and a smile.

Take care of your support system around you: your spouse, family member, a friend. Let them know you care and are grateful for all they have done for you.

Maybe you see someone struggling in a parking lot, getting groceries in their car. Spend time spreading love and helpfulness by giving them a hand.

It doesn’t take money or a lot of time, it just takes your attention and to show someone, “Hey, I see you. Thank you for all you do. Let me help you”.

 

Whatever you do, do in love, with patience, kindness, and selflessly.

When we give of ourselves, we share love, we show our humanity, and we spread goodness into the world. The world could use that right about now.

Imagine if everyone looked inward and made changes on themselves. Imagine the kind of world we would live in with that kind of kindness being spread!

Wouldn’t that be something!

So, Dear Warriors, what are you going to do while you are under construction this week?

How can you make a difference in spite of your circumstances?

When you focus on others you take the focus off of yourself and it allows you to get out of your own head and release what has been holding you back in your “construction time” and place it elsewhere. What you will see is that your life will be enriched and fuller. Your joy will overflow when you bring joy to others.

Try it and get back to me! Let me know how it’s going.

I’m rooting for you, Warriors! You are strong.  You are special. You are loved!

Have a blessed week ahead, and as always,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

Much love,

 

 

 

 

 

To Travel is To Live

To Travel is To Live

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:59 — 33.5MB)

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A Journey of a Thousand Miles Must Begin With a Single Step

-Lao Tzu.

 

Traveling is exciting but can also be stressful. Packing the right clothing for the weather, the events, and what makes you feel amazing. You try to pack neatly and concisely so you can pack everything you want and need.

As an amputee, things become a little more confusing and worrisome. What will you need? What MUST come with? What if this happens or that happens? All of a sudden, packing and traveling becomes almost impossible. How will you ever pack for every situation with the space you have?

There are so many rules with TSA and airports. There are so many unknowns in hotels. Knowing how to navigate these specifics with travel comes with experience. You learn more, for your unique situation, as you go but we can also help each other as we gain our own understanding and experiences.

Today I share my tips and tricks and my own experiences from the years of traveling, especially by plane, to help you on your own journey in hopes that you can enjoy your time more and worry less.

As you travel more you will become less worried about the process and be able to focus on the trip, and enjoy making memories.

You will find ways to make each trip a little more efficient and packing a little more streamlined.

If you are traveling soon, by plane, give yourself plenty of time the first few trips so you don’t feel rushed or miss your flight.

Don’t be too proud to use a wheelchair as you go through airports, and make sure you bring your basic amputee necessities. I kept a list that I accumulated as I went (things I realized I needed but never thought of or forgot in the beginning), this way I could check off the items I needed each time I packed for a trip. It eventually became unnecessary after traveling many times over the years.

Traveling should be a way to unwind and enjoy life after all you’ve been through. When you’re ready to begin travels, don’t be held back by fears, just charge forward and live!

It’s time to experience life and move forward from your amputation. Go enjoy the world and make memories!

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” -John A. Shedd

 

 

You were built for more than sitting around and wishing for more. You were meant to experience it! Go out and enjoy these moments now and chase down those dreams!

 

Go out, Warriors, and explore the world. You deserve it!

And as always,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

 

Much love,

 

 

Manifesting Your Dreams

Manifesting Your Dreams

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Setting Goals & Thinking Positively to Live The Life of Your Dreams

 

 

Successful people know how to succeed and what it takes to succeed.

So what is it? What do they know that you don’t?

Everyone knows that hard work pays off and that practice makes permanence.

But what separates you from someone who is doing the very thing you want to do, too?

Now, of course there is DNA involved in some of that, talent can be passed down from generation to generation, however, I’m talking about post amputation, and how one person adjusts to this new life better than others. What separates THOSE people?

I would agree that mindset and visualization is a huge factor.

I know we all come to amputation differently, and our circumstances are all totally different. Even our support system looks different from one person to the next, but those aren’t what make it or break it for us.

You have seen stories of people overcoming the worst odds and overcoming horrendous circumstances to find success.

What is their secret sauce to breaking free?

It is their grit and their determination for their situation NOT to define them, and not to inhibit them and their desires.

That comes from having an intense desire to achieve, to prove people wrong, to dream despite where they are right now.

They don’t allow their circumstance to define their future and their life. they rise above those circumstances, DESPITE them!

HOW?

They have a desire and a yearning to prove the world wrong.

They want to live.

They want to reach their goals.

They want to LIVE the life they still want.

It truly comes down to the fight within and then making a plan and then executing that plan.

Mindset matters!

When things start to get hard what do you do?

Do you buckle down and press in harder or do you cave in to the pressure?

Do you write down your goals and no matter what, keep forging forward despite how today feels or do you cry “Uncle” and say it just isn’t meant to be?

That is the difference.

Each of us will have great days, those are the days we can easily see us reaching our goals and the days that feed us happy thoughts and optimism.

But, the really champions are made on the hard days!

The hard days are when sickness knocks you down, or when your leg hurts too much to want to put on your socket. It’s the days when a setback happens like an infection or a revision surgery and dreams get deferred. Where are you on THOSE days? Did you give up or adjust your timeline? Did you see this moment as the roadblock to giving up, or just the next challenge you are ready to hit head on?

Everyone has those days, but those that want to succeed find a way to get through them.

Mindset matters! Self talk matters.

I believe we all have the fight within us, but our priorities are different.

We all have a desire to succeed, but only some want it bad enough to keep getting up when they get knocked down.

When we have our bad days, or days of struggles, that is when we choose the path. Do we want our goals and dreams bad enough to fight through the hard days, or does that just exhaust us and we raise the white flag in surrender?

Same goes with how we see ourselves. When we feel great about how we look, how clothes fit, and feel good about who looks back at us in the mirror, we feel on top of the world, but the moment we have an uncomfortable feeling or a change in perspective we become harsh with ourselves and show zero grace. That’s when I find negativity can destroy all we have been working towards.

In the end, we all have ebbs and flows in our views of ourselves, our looks, our accomplishments at the moment. One moment we feel amazing about what we’ve accomplished, like walking a mile in our prosthesis, to all of a sudden feeling inferior because we allowed comparison and negativity into our minds.

This is self destructive behavior, and we can all fall into it.

What will you do to set yourself up for success in the midst of the hard days?

 

 

It’s time to set a plan into action.

It’s so easy to see your end goal and how easy it’ll be to get there…. on GREAT days, even good days, but it’s what we do and how we handle the bad days or the hard days, when life takes a turn and tries to take you down.

Set goals!

Add in baby steps to achieving those goals. Have a game plan not just a final achievement that you want to fulfill.

Ask yourself, what will it take to achieve that.

How long will this goal take? What will each week look like, and even break down the goal into daily activities to help you get there.

When we break goals down into baby steps or daily achievements we do two things:

*we make the BIG goal attainable

*we have a plan in place for every day to keep us accountable and showing us attainable small goals that will also lift our spirits and keep us mentally strong on the road to the BIG goal. This will help you keep a more positive mindset throughout.

I would also use post-it notes around your home of positive comments for you to see so you remember, even on the tough days, what your mind was thinking about you and your goals on the good days. Does that make sense?

We can all find success, but success looks different for each of us. Stop comparing yourself to others, there is no one like YOU!

Set the goals you dream of and stay focused. You deserve that! You can do this!

Remember we all have a warrior spirit within us, we just need to unleash it and use it to do great things!

Don’t give up, Dear Warriors, keep pushing forward to the dreams you want and for the life you want to live!

You are strong enough and capable enough! Don’t ever forget that!

And as always, until next time,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!

Much love,

 

 

 

 

The Process

The Process

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:24 — 35.6MB)

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Healing Physically, Adapting Mentally and Emotionally

 

Amputation isn’t just the act of amputating a limb.

It isn’t just surgery, heal, and walk.

This is a process. It takes time, money, patience, and a whole lot of grit!

Unfortunately, most patients that knowingly go into amputation surgery can’t comprehend the struggles to come. For those who didn’t choose or prep for amputation, they have no idea of the life that’s ahead of them. For them, their emotional and mental state need to heal first, while they wait for their physical healing. They had their life torn apart by disease or war or an accident.

Whichever category you fall into know that you will get through this but it takes time, and commitment. You will need to work on, what I feel are, the four major components of successfully navigating amputee life: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Financial.

Physical:

Obviously, you will take time to heal. You will need to learn to rebalance with less weight on one side of your body and also how to get around with crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair. You need to heal your incision but also the bone, muscle, and tissue. It was told to me that true healing takes up to 12 months. Within that time you will also experience new sensations and possibly phantom pains, all of which you will learn to adapt and work through. The whole wearing of a shrinker and then being cleared for a socket is a whole other side of the physical aspect you will need to come to grips with.

 

 

Mental:

As an elected amputee I had four months to prepare my mind for what was to come. I could ask questions, meet people, find peace with my decision, and set my future goals and dreams. Setting goals and daring to dream of a brighter future post-amputation is invaluable and can set you up for success. Manifesting your own destiny with a powerful and positive mindset is key! Get your mental game lined up as soon as you can.

 

 

Emotional:

Being ready to face your new life and new look is extremely important. Understanding how to deal with some of the struggles and hurdles you will face is hard to prepare for ahead of time, just know that when you do face a hardship that you need to take a step back, take a deep breathe and understand that these moments will end and good times will happen again. This journey is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, pains and peace.

If you have dealt with an amputation due to someone else’s negligence, like an accident you were involved in, then you may have some extra baggage to address with your emotions, anger and hate. These emotions are poison to your healing. They can create some major problems for you and ultimately stifle your level of success as an amputee. Letting go of negativity will allow for healing and growth.

 

 

Insurance/Money:

My general practitioner gave me great advice ahead of my surgery, to contact my insurance company so I knew and understood my coverage and the rules of external prosthesis, but even then I got the short end of the stick (listen in to hear what happened!).

Remember that prosthetics are your new ‘forever’, being able to afford them or having coverage for them is highly important. Be prepared for what’s to come so you don’t feel like you’ve been duped. The reality is that you may be looking to get a new one every 3 years (most prosthetics have a 3 year warranty-at least that’s what I deal with as an above knee amputee with MPKs).

I wished more people had some of these basic facts before their surgery, but you learn as you go, that’s how my journey happened, and is still happening. Everyone’s experience is different, and you need to do what you need to do to embrace your new life as an amputee. The best teacher is time and experience.

 

 

 

 

This week is simple in detail but tough to execute.

Look yourself in the mirror and address what weakness you have and where you struggle the most in your life.

Are you weaker inner mental game or physical (being strong and healthy is important pre-surgery)?

Is your emotional state a struggle?

Be honest with yourself and really try to address your weaknesses.

Next, list your goals and dreams. Dare to go big! Manifest your future with positivity and standards you want to achieve and live up to. These will save you in times of struggle and give you incentive to keep fighting.

 

Being prepared doesn’t mean you won’t fall and falter, but it will give you a head start of your new life as an amputee.

Give yourself a fighting chance and reap the benefits of your preparedness and positive mindset.

You are stronger than you think and more resilient than you’ll ever know.

Rise up, Warriors, and prepare for battle!

 

Cheers to a blessed week ahead,

And until next week,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

 

Much love,

 

 

 

 

 

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