Tag: adaptability

Prepare and Pivot

Prepare and Pivot

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.

Be YOU!!!

Much love,

 

 

Peter Pan Said It Best

Peter Pan Said It Best

“To live will be an awfully big adventure.”     -Peter Pan

And to live well, is even better.

Sometimes it might feel like the world is coming down all around you and you can barely breathe. We can get so wrapped up in our own journey, or life, that we forget that there are others out there hurting and dealing with their own struggles.  There are people who don’t know if they can make it one more day, are in so much pain, or ready to give up because they feel alone and unseen.

That’s where I want to take you today. No matter what you may be going through there is someone out there who is in need and probably worse off than you.  Maybe they feel they have no one to talk to or rely on. Maybe they are in so much pain that it has become unbearable to deal with. Maybe they got yet another piece of bad news that is pushing them to their limits.

This is where we can come in and help ourselves while helping others.  I have said it before and I’ll say it again, if I sit around thinking of everything that feels painful or uncomfortable in my own life or spend time dwelling on what I can’t do then I am going to find myself throwing a pity party. This, no one wants to see.  And I can’t say that I’m truly living if I approach life like this.  What I CAN do is reach out to friends, family, neighbors, who are in need of a friend or someone to talk to and let them know I care, and that I am there for them.  I could send a note, a text, take them a coffee or lunch.  Sometimes, just taking time out of our busy days, could be what saves someone that day.

You see, we have become a society that has become so busy in our own lives, wrapped up in our own problems, it has become every man/woman for themselves, and it’s hurting us.

When I decided to amputate, sure I had my own goals about how I’d bounce back and become active, but I also wanted to make sure I was helping someone else along the way. I worked with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Range Of Motion Project these past 3 years.  What I found by fundraising and being actively involved with these groups was that it lifted me up, too!  I found a purpose outside of my own life, helping others.  What an amazing feeling this was…so I continued to help.  Then I started hearing from people that were struggling to wear their prosthesis, so I started calling and talking with them and making videos of what it’s like to start a new activity, as an amputee, and being transparent about my own struggles.

People just want to be seen, to not feel alone in this life. Life is a big adventure, and to live it well is an even bigger adventure. One worth the journey, the heartache and the pain we sometimes feel.

“All the world is made of Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust.”    -Peter Pan

May you be someone’s “pixie dust” this week. See how you can be, below.⬇️

 

This week, reach out to someone that may need a friend.  Maybe it’s a neighbor, an old friend, or a family member. Touch base with them. Send a text, and email, pick up the phone and call them, invite them for coffee or lunch.  Try to connect with someone each day until we meet again next week.  You may be surprised what this will also do for you.

Sometimes when we put aside our own struggles to help someone else, we benefit more than we can even imagine.  Be someone’s pixie dust this week, and watch how your life changes as you do.

 

As always:

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!

 

Much love,

Angie