 How many legs does an APT need? Sounds like the start of a joke, but it's not. It's a very serious question and one that I never considered before becoming an APT myself. Let's find out and dive in. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, and delightful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me today on Footless Joe. I am Joe. I am missing a human foot, a meat foot, and I wanted to talk a little bit today about why I have three different feet for one missing body part. I didn't spend a whole lot of time contemplating how many legs an APT might need before I became one myself. And as I've gone through this process, I've realized that the number is definitely more than one. You definitely need more than one prosthetic leg if you want to participate in the kinds of activities that an able-bodied person might be able to participate in. So let's talk about how many legs an APT really needs and how they can actually get those, because it's a little bit more difficult than you might think. But first, let me introduce you to our sponsor. A huge thank you today to DuVol. This is their Radiance Spin Care System. It's something I've talked about before. I did a sponsorship with them a few months ago, and legitimately I have used this just about every single day since then. If you don't have a spin brush for your facial skincare and even for your whole body skincare, it's something that I would highly recommend checking out. I keep in the shower and I use it to cleanse my face. There's no way with just using my fingers that I could ever get my skin nearly as clean as this gets it. I have noticed that the acne that I have when I get, you know, zits every now and again, it happens. It has decreased significantly since I started using this. 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Thank you again so much to DeVole for sponsoring this video. And now let's learn a little bit about how many legs amputees really need. I don't know, is it one, is it 45? We're gonna find out. When I was a newborn amputee, and by that I mean a 27 year old woman who had just become an amputee. At my first prosthetics appointment, my prosthetist at the time asked me, do you wanna be able to wear high heels or do you wanna be able to go hiking? Now there were a few things that were interesting to me about that question being the starting question. First of all, the idea that I needed to decide then, or in the very near future, if I wanted to be able to wear a type of shoe that's very common for women to wear that I would like to wear, or if I wanna be able to do something that's very common for people to be able to do and participate in that. I had one of two options, right? And I probably could have spent some time thinking about that, but for me I was like, well I really wanna be able to wear high heel shoes because I never have been able to because my ankle was so messed up before it was cut off. But the big reason why I had this done was so I could get active again, so I could do things that I love, so I could take my dogs for a walk, so I could go hiking. And so I was like, let's go with the hiking option and that is how I ended up with this. This is the Osser Proflex XC torsion. It's got this little torsion ball here which actually comes in very handy for hiking. That puppy actually does something. It actually does allow for a little bit more movement which is fantastic. My foot has a hole. Oh my gosh. Do you see that? It has a hole in it. I legitimately did not see, and it's got a crack in the bottom. What the heck, sad. Side note, these foot shells, like the thing that kinda looks like a human foot but also not really, these are the only things that insurance does not cover. Which is why my foot has had dog chew marks, dog teeth marks in it for about a year now. And this nice little divot there in the foot. This is a part, like any part of a prosthetic leg, but I don't understand why insurance doesn't cover them. What you may not think by looking at this though, at first glance, is that it does not adjust heel heights at all. It is flat on the ground. Now there is a little bit of fiddling around I can do with the screws in here to kind of point it forward a little bit more if I had boots that had like a little bit of a heel. But even then, that's pretty uncomfortable. Something else that was interesting and kind of built into this question was the realization which I learned going through this process is that insurance companies, generally speaking, only pay for one prosthetic every three years. So you gotta pick one and you better pick the right one because you are gonna be stuck with it for three years. For this one right here, I am almost at two years which makes me very excited because then I only have one year left to go into like and pick a new one and add to my wardrobe of feet. Wardrobe of feet is probably not a sentence you thought you'd wake up this morning hearing but there you go, you're welcome. So I chose the more activity, the hiking option and understood that unless I had many thousands of dollars on hand or unless someone gifted it to me, something like that, I wouldn't be wearing high heels for the next three years. So if I can hike but not wear high heel shoes with this, what else can I do or not do? Well, can I think is probably the wrong word. What is wise or what is really, what you're really able to do in different legs does have limitations. Like for instance, I could in theory run on this but I can't actually run because it's not built for that kind of movement. It's a different kind of movement that your body goes through running versus walking. I have tried to like jog just to see what it would feel like and well it does not feel great because there is not the spring that this carbon fiber awesome running blade has in it. When this finally has a sock attached to it which will hopefully be happening in a week or two it will be built specifically for running and it won't be super comfortable to for instance, walk in. One of the reasons for that is because when they build this they build it so that if you're standing still your hip on whatever side is amputated is gonna be up about an inch. The reason for that is because when you're running it's gonna compress this and your hips are gonna be even which is what you want for running. That is not comfortable for standing or regular walking. These are built for very different purposes. So what about this guy? What's this guy over here? Well this is my biking foot. Why would I need a biking foot? Excellent question. This is actually one that I wasn't aware of probably till I was given an indoor bike and I started trying to bike. The socket for these two is very different and if you're unfamiliar the socket is this part. The part that is actually gonna go around my residual limb as you can tell this is kind of falling apart but it still works great. That's all that matters. My walking leg would not allow for the range of motion to be able to bend my leg far enough to complete a pedal stroke and so my fantastic prosthetist took one of my old sockets cut it down in the back which wouldn't work for walking because it doesn't provide the proper support for me to be able to walk well, walk with good alignment, walk with good support, walk in a straight line and he cut it down enough in the back that it would allow my knee to bend that far. But the problem then is that I had two sockets but only one foot and so every morning if I wanted to get on the bike I would go through a process of like unscrewing all these screws getting the alignment right switching over to the other socket getting the alignment right, biking, unscrewing everything, transferring it back over hoping that I got the alignment right for that day and that's something that's totally doable. A lot of people do that and I was grateful like have a second socket that I could do that with but my prosthetics office and my prosthetist in particular Zach was incredibly kind and gave me one of their old feet that was a similar size to my foot. The foot that is in here is actually about a size and a half larger than my actual foot size but it worked out perfectly because I put the bike shoe on there and then we're good to go. So with these three I'll be able to walk, hike, bike and run which is absolutely amazing and fantastic and a dream come true. But what about swimming? None of these are built for swimming or good for swimming. A lot of people ask me about swimming actually I have gone swimming once in San Putation. It was in a saltwater pool and in saltwater you float a little bit easier so I kind of wanted to see what swimming would be like and it went perfectly fine. I was on a swim team when I was a kid so I'm pretty good at swimming and just kicking with my little nubbin it felt really weird but it was doable. However, if you're going snorkeling or scoop diving or something like that you might want to attach a fin to your leg and there are a variety of ways that you can do that. I'll pop some of them up on screen. People use all different kinds of options but none of those are covered by insurance so either you're working with a program, you're paying out of pocket to get it or you're adapting and I think that's one of the pillars of being an APT is that your life is all about adaptation and this was nothing new to me because having a really messed up ankle for years of my life I was very familiar with like going to an exercise class and going to do something be it MMA or an exercise class or CrossFit or whatever and just letting the instructor know, hey, my ankle's messed up I'm gonna have to adjust some things just so you know that's what I'm doing. And I would have that conversation wherever I went to try to do something new and you get really good at it. You get good at adapting to different situations and realizing your own limitations. And I think that there are two things I really want to say when it comes to how many legs does an amputee need? To be able to walk, you need one that fits you well and isn't too painful, isn't too uncomfortable and you can walk, you know, in a straight line with. But for a lot of us, and this is not everybody, I'm just speaking for myself and other people that I know just walking is not enough is being able to walk a gift. Oh my God, yes, it is absolutely incredible. And I am forever grateful that I'm able to do that. But if that's all I could do then I would have to say no to my friends who asked me to go hiking. I live in Colorado, it's like what people do. I wouldn't be able to hop on a bicycle or walk on rocky terrain or go at a pace above a slow walk. I wouldn't be able to snowboard or ski or get in the water and really get going. There are so many different activities that I'd be restricted from, which is a bummer, right? I feel like there's this delicate balance of being really grateful for what you have but also being like, I want to be able to do the other things too. Like for instance, let's go back to skiing and snowboarding. I live in Colorado as previously mentioned meaning that the majority of the activities that people do here are go into the mountains and hike or go into the mountains and ski and snowboard. And I have never gone skiing or snowboarding except for this one time when I was eight and my parents took me to Anaconda, Montana and we went skiing, which was awesome but I was more excited about the fact that we got to see sled dogs. That is not important for you to know for this video but now you know, sled dogs are fantastic and got eight-year-old Joe very excited. But I've never been able to go skiing or snowboarding. That's something I'd really like to try but to do that in a way that supports my body well I would need a snowboarding leg. For instance, my friend Anika has a snowboarding leg and I'm pretty sure she said it cost something like 30 grand. Not that she had to pay personally but the actual device itself is that. Does that mean I can never go skiing or snowboarding? No, I can probably make one of these work and have a great time but I'm not gonna be able to do it at like an optimal level. At a level that's really made for my body it would be adjusting and adapting to it unless I had 30 grand to shell out. The reality for many amputees is that they have one or two legs and they pick the activities that they can do with those. I think it's really unfortunate that prosthetics are so expensive that they're so out of reach for most people. Like there's no way that I could ever buy this. This was given to me by a good friend. There's no way that I ever could have gotten this unless I saved up for quite a while unless for the kindness of other people and there are grant programs out there that hook people up and hook amputee athletes up with the gear as in the legs that they need but it's a struggle and you really have to like think ahead and make decisions about what kind of life you want and what restrictions you want on your life when you're getting that one leg that you can have for those three years. I'm just gonna throw in my two cents here and say that I really do think it is unfortunate that insurance companies only cover one type of device every three years because if someone wants to be more active, if someone wants to do more things it's in the interest of their health, physical and mental I would argue to be able to do those things and not covering additional legs, additional feet to allow them to do those things. I think it's really unfortunate. I think saying that like you have one leg be happy with it for three years at least you're able to do something. Like yes, there was a lot of gratitude in that but also I don't know I just think it's unfortunate that insurance companies have decided that amputees really only need to be able to walk and that's it. I really think there should be coverage and options for people who want to do more things and want to be more active. I think it would be in insurance companies interest to be honest with you. I know that this is like this is a United States of America kind of issue because other countries are not like this but we currently are. So how many feet does an amputee need? Oh, I think the answer at the end of the day is you figure it out when you become an amputee. You kind of play it by ear and figure out what you want to do and what your lifestyle is like, what you're wanting to do and achieve and you plan accordingly. And sometimes that means waiting long periods of time to be able to do those things. I am so thankful for these three legs that allow me to do three things that I really love. I realize how lucky I am to have these and I'm really grateful for it. And I'm also hopeful to be able to do more in the near future. I want to be able to wear high heels in a pre dress. I want to be able to go skiing or snowboarding. I want to be able to go swimming and actually kick with both legs and have it be effective. Cause kicking with this I feel like is more just like for the show of it, right? It's like what my body's just used to. I don't think it's really doing that much. I feel like this really doesn't help propel me through the water. I think at the end of the day to answer the title of this video, you know how many, how many legs does an amputee really need? Need is a funny word here, right? Like, as I said, to be able to walk, you really only need one. But for those who want to do more, you are going to need additional pieces of equipment to be able to do that in a way that doesn't hurt your body. If I ever won the lottery, if I ever got just super rich out of nowhere I would definitely buy a leg that would allow me to wear heels. This is my sign for wearing heels apparently. I wanted to be able to ski and snowboard a swimming leg. Maybe a gymnastics leg. Am I a gymnast? No. Would I like to be? Yes. Do I realize that I'm probably tooled for that for sure? But why not give it a shot? Maybe an ice skating leg? We're getting wild and crazy now here kids. But for now I'm incredibly grateful and happy with the three that I have while I do dream of more in the future. Thank you again so much to our sponsor Duvo for sponsoring this video. Check out their links down below for this and also for that facial spun which I literally use every day and really, really like. To my patrons over on Patreon, thank you so much for supporting me financially being a part of this community and being a part of this channel. I truly appreciate you enable me to do this and I am forever grateful for that. If you don't know what Patreon is it is a place where you can financially support creators that you care about or want to support and in return you get a little bit of a community and you get some cool perks like behind the scenes pets videos. And to you watching this video, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere in the world. I know many of you are all over the world doing absolutely anything and you chose to spend a few minutes with me and that means the world to me, thank you. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. I'm very bummed that my toe has a hole in it. I can see like the carbon fiber through it. What a bummer. I guess this is kind of my own fault because I was told not to walk without wearing socks or shoes and I've done a lot of barefoot walking because I like barefoot walking, all right? But I guess I must now pay the consequences. Have her from the sky.