Adaptive Living – Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior

The Road Forward May Look Different

By bawarrior | October 14, 2026

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Finding Hope Beyond the Pivot

Part Five of My Pivoting Series

In this final episode of my Pivoting series, I’m sharing the reminder I’ve had to learn again and again: the road forward may look different, but it can still be meaningful, beautiful, and full of possibility.

Life changes for all of us. We can make the best plans, prepare for every scenario, and still find ourselves facing a curveball we never saw coming. As an above-knee amputee, one of my biggest pivots was learning to live in a body that had changed forever. While people may see a smile, they do not always see the grief, fear, mental load, exhaustion, and rebuilding that live underneath it.

But pivoting is not quitting. I can still hold onto a goal while allowing the path to that goal to change.

Do some research to find a new way forward

Skiing is one of the clearest examples in my own life. I had always imagined skiing more with my husband and family as we got older. After years of surgeries and then losing my leg, I wondered whether I would ever ski again. I had to grieve what I thought it would look like, learn a new way to do it with one leg and outriggers, rebuild my strength, and face a lot of fear. Yet standing at the top of a snowy mountain with my family again brought me to tears. The goal was still there, it just looked different.

Together again!

That is why I believe hope is not forced positivity. Hope does not deny that this chapter is hard. It is choosing to believe that hard does not mean meaningless. My faith has helped me trust that God can bring purpose from the parts of my story I never would have chosen.

One of the biggest traps I had to overcome was comparing my old self to my new self—and comparing myself to other amputees. Whether it is watching someone run effortlessly on social media or remembering what I used to lift at the gym, comparison steals the joy of noticing what I am accomplishing today. I recently got on a treadmill with my new running blade, scared and holding tightly to the rails. It may not have looked graceful, but I faced a fear, showed up, and tried. That matters.

Facing fears but pushing through them.

Different does not mean less. Losing a limb does not make any of us less capable, less valuable, less beautiful, or less worthy of joy. We are more than our bodies and more than our parts.

Eight years into this journey, I can see that I did not have to understand the whole plan at the beginning. I only had to take the next right step. One step led to a 10K, skiing, this podcast, Warrior Ground, and a community of women who understand this journey. Your next step may be researching a new doctor, calling a PT, learning about adaptive sports, or simply choosing to believe there is more ahead for you.

Take a few minutes this week and ask yourself: What am I ready to leave behind? What dream am I ready to carry forward? And what is one next step I can take with hope?

Share your next step with me, and if this series encouraged you, please like, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and listen back to the first four episodes of Pivoting. Keep moving forward, Warrior.

And as always,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

Much love,

Prepare and Pivot

By bawarrior | September 30, 2026

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (36.2MB)

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How to Adapt When Life, and Travel, Don’t Go as Planned

What do you do when you have prepared for everything, and life still throws you a curveball?

In this episode of BAWarrior Podcast, I’m continuing our Pivoting series with one of the most personal lessons I learned from international travel as an above-knee amputee: preparation matters, but adaptability is what carries us through the unexpected.

Travel after limb loss can feel overwhelming. There are prosthetic supplies to pack, accessibility to consider, energy to manage, socket fit changes, weather, long airport days, and the fear of being far from the things that make everyday life feel safe. On my recent trip to Paris, I had converters, a surge protector, and my prosthetic charging system ready, yet I still lost power and burned out my surge protector before I could charge my leg.

In that moment, I had a choice: panic and stay stuck, or pivot.

I share how I worked through the fear, asked for help, reached out to my prosthetist and prosthetic team, searched for local resources, and took the next step in front of me. That experience reminded me that confidence is not built by waiting until we have every answer. Confidence is built in the middle of the trial, when we learn that we can adjust, recover, and find another way.

We also talk about the energy budget behind adaptive travel and prosthetic life. Money may make a trip possible, but energy is a currency too. Airport delays, changing gates, standing in lines, carrying luggage, heat, humidity, fatigue, phantom pain, and the demands of walking with a prosthesis all add up. Choosing a wheelchair or asking for support before you hit your breaking point is not losing your independence—it is protecting it.

I also share the hard lesson my body taught me after returning home: recovery cannot be rushed. Sometimes the strongest pivot is slowing down before pain, exhaustion, or injury forces you to stop.

Before you go, I want you to name one thing fear has been keeping you from doing. It may be traveling, walking outside in your prosthesis, trying something new, asking for help, or giving yourself the recovery you truly need.

Prepare what you can, stay open to the pivot, and take one small step this week.

Confidence does not arrive before you begin, it grows as you keep going.

If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who needs the reminder that they can adapt, recover, and find another way.

Leave a comment and tell me: What is one fear you are ready to face with a little more flexibility and faith?

And as always, Warriors,

Be Healthy.

Be Happy.