 You know as a leg amputee, I often kind of use shorthand and say I'm missing a leg, but I realized I'm a dirty liar. Not only do I have two legs, I actually got three. That was, that was mistimed. Let's try that again. I actually have three. I'm very good at dramatic reveals. Hello there my beautiful, lovely internet friends and welcome back to my channel. I am really, really, really, really excited that I get to show this to you today because I have had the same prosthetic leg for three and a half years now. It's been fantastic. We love her. Her name is Sunshine because, obviously, I'm walking on sunshine. Whoa! So unkey. And don't get me wrong, she's been great, but it might be time for an upgrade. I got to try out this brand new ankle and I want to show you what it can do and what that could mean for me. So I've been having leg and prosthetic issues for a couple months now and we decided it was time for a brand new socket to kind of refit things. And in the process of doing that, my prosthetic sac was able to get me a trial run of this new ankle. And I don't excite you guys too much, but check this out. Oh yeah, baby. I realized how anti-climatic that is to anyone who is not an amputee, but being able to actually, like, bend my ankle again is actually ridiculously cool. And I might add slightly problematic, which we'll get into in just a moment. I feel like I could adjust this to kind of be a microphone stand. Guys, gals, non-binary pals, before we continue with today's scheduled programming, a word from our sponsor. Roll that ad, Joe. So today's video sponsor is Blue Land, which is safe, effective, convenient, and environmentally friendly. Cleaning products, quick story before I kind of jumped into the ad. I first heard about this company maybe two years ago. We ordered a starter kit and as soon as it showed up, I actually reached out to the company when my channel was much smaller and was like, can we do a sponsorship? 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Okay, so first and foremost, this is the echelon ER standing for extended, what just happened, I'm doing great, extended range, meaning that this can actually bend and flex more than you think it could. I realize it doesn't look very impressive when I'm doing it with my arms, but wait until I actually put weight on it, you can see what it does. Okay, so with Sunshine here, the Oscar Pro Flex XC torsion ball leg, it's been super fantastic for walking, for hiking, for kind of low impact activities, but different lengths are designed for different purposes. So this one, for instance, has like bend and flex to it if I really put weight on it, but it's pretty static overall. I've learned to walk really great on this, use it really well, but something I didn't realize that I was actually missing was ankle flexion, like the ability to go like this. So let's demonstrate that now. Okay, so this is what it looks like walking on Sunshine. So let's switch them out. First thing that is really different is the liner. This is the thing that's in touch with my leg all day, every single day. For years, I've used these guys, super great, super comfortable, but we're trying out this one now, which is a pretty cool feature. As I'm filming this video, I'm wondering would Joe Preamputation have watched a whole video about some amputee getting a brand new leg? Is it interesting to people who have limbs? I would love to know, comment down below. So what makes this one different is this white piece right here is way more flexible. So bending my knee feels a lot easier and more natural because there's less resistance. Getting it on is still weird because the ankle is moving when I'm trying to get it to fit. In case you aren't familiar, you always roll the liner down so that the liner and the sleeve make contact and form some nice suction. We love suction when it comes to prosthetics. So I want to show you something superficial about this that actually is surprisingly meaningful to me. And that is the fact that when I am sitting, both of my feet are flat on the floor. This hasn't happened in almost four years. With my old leg here, if I was sitting, you know, my ankle was always flexed up, which looks really unnatural. And while I'm fine with that, I don't hide the fact that I have a prosthetic leg. Being able to like sit normally is just really cool. I love that I can do that. The little bits of normalcy, or at least what I used to be used to, right, that feel really cool. Okay, so I'm going to demonstrate what it looks like walking inside on an obstacle course and kind of show you how much motion this thing has. And then talk about some of the pros but also cons. One very superficial thing that I don't love is that the Kevlar sock that protects this foot shell from the carbon fiber grinding through it is white. And I feel like for the amount of hiking and outdoor stuff that I do, that white is going to turn a weird yellow color very quickly. I'm going to see if my prosthetist has a black one. Just realize that there are coffee spills on this shoe. Please forgive me. Okay, but look at that. Like my feet are both on the ground. That particular aspect I just love. Okay, so that was not intentional, but it does demonstrate one of the cons. We might as well get into that right now. Because when I sit down, my ankle can extend out, and I have not had that for years. I'm not used to the fact that this moves, and so getting out of the car or getting up from standing, I find myself tripping and stumbling constantly. I haven't quite ate it just yet. Fingers crossed, first time for everything. When I stand up, I got to make sure I'm putting pressure to like even it back out and then walk. So when I'm walking now, you can see that there's a way more natural, you know, ankle movement. I put my foot down. I can then use it to push off, bring my leg back through. When I start to put weight on my prosthetic leg, it extends back out and I can actually push through. However, one thing you may notice from watching this footage is that I am struggling to get the motion back down. So my entire body, and especially the remaining leg muscles that I have, I've gotten really adjusted to walking a very specific certain way. For years with this ankle, readjusting is actually way more difficult than I imagined it would be. It's not really like riding a bike. Like I have to learn with this one in particular, I've got to engage a lot more of my glute muscle. I feel fatigue in little muscles I wasn't even aware that I had when I'm walking all day on this ankle, which honestly is not a bad thing at all. It's just a process of adjustment. But it is important to know because I'm about to leave for a two-week hiking trip. As in, Sophie and I are driving across the country and hiking for like an hour max each day. By the way, if you'd like to see videos about that, comment down below. I will make them for you. But the slightly different use of muscles also means that I don't feel as stable and secure. My gait isn't as natural yet as I adjust to this. So when I was first trying this ankle out in my prosthetics office, I really noticed a difference was going up and downhill. Like, like take a look at this. My step downhill looks kind of almost natural to me. Like it kind of looks like how a human meat leg works. And I feel like I look a lot more graceful and natural walking, which is so cool because usually going up and downhill puts a lot of pressure on my knee and my hips. It's fine. It just doesn't feel great. And this really alleviates a lot of that because I kind of have more of the push off and the step up and natural range of motion. Don't take a shot every time I say natural in this video because you will not be well. All right. We're going to try a little experiment. I don't think this will work because I think these heels are too high, but I've often talked in videos about how I can't wear high heeled shoes because my ankle doesn't bend, but this one does a little bit. And I'm curious if I could get away with like, maybe even like half of this heel, just a little bit, just a little fancy. Come on, little toes. You can do it. I don't really care if I break this shoe because I don't wear it. Look at that. We got, we got some bend. The real test. Can I actually do this? Am I about to walk on high heels for the first time in my entire life? That would be really cool. Sorry. I feel like I should explain the emotion that it's just something silly and stupid that I wanted to do for years. I didn't even think about doing this when I first started filming the video. Let's see how it works. I can actually stand in these. Let's see how walking is though. And just the fact that I can stand in these is really cool. Okay. So I've heard tell that, that walking on high heels is challenging for everyone. I think these are definitely too high and I also have zero practice walking on high heels. But I am going to buy a shorter pair and see if maybe I can make that work because that would be really cool. Okay. So the other issue that I'm looking to kind of find a solution for hopefully today when I go see my prosthetic Zach is especially when I'm walking around the house. I don't wear shoes when I walk around the house. I refuse. You can't make me do it. You can't make me do it. Is the fact that it feels a little bit too stiff, like kind of the step through when I'm not wearing shoes. I really kind of feel the moment that I'm rolling over my toes. It kind of kicks me back. It doesn't feel super great. Thankfully, there are definitely ways to adjust that. I could actually do it at home myself. I'm just going to get some supervision the first time. Also things like changing directions quickly feels a lot better with this because of that extra motion. So this beautiful baby right here is not mine yet. We're still working with insurance to get approval that if it works, they might pay for it. Fingers crossed. If not, it's an obscene amount of money that I will not be able to pay. But hopefully they will allow it to go through. So I'm just testing this out for now I do think that I want it if we can kind of work out some of the little issues because it obviously makes me really happy and really excited. And I'd also get to keep this one too as a backup leg for different activities. Honestly, I would say my two favorite things is how easy it is to walk downhill and how much more natural it feels walking in general. The important things but also probably just the fact that I can have both of my feet fully on the floor. I don't know why that's such a big thing but it's those little human things kind of that the average person can do that I haven't been able to do for years. That just feels nice. Also regardless, I will be getting a brand new socket. I'm gonna make it black carbon fiber like the last one. Black just goes with everything and my prosthetist made this piece black too because he knows that I like things to match. So once we get the socket fit perfect he'll make it into carbon fiber. It won't look like this casting material anymore. It'll look way close for this and hopefully I will be able to walk a lot more naturally. I am still looking at probably having to have a small surgery to remove some stuff that's going on in my leg. If this doesn't alleviate the pain that I'm having. And most importantly if I get to keep this ankle you know we're gonna have to livestream an aiming party because you my lovely audience named Sunshine my last leg and she needs a new one. The very first socket that I was kind of learning to walk on we named Christopher, Christopher Walken. So you could say the naming bar is pretty high. Thank you so much to Blueland again for sponsoring this video. Check out that link below for 20% off your first offer. I really love the mission behind them and what they're doing. So clicking that link not only helps to support my channel but also is a cause I genuinely believe in and think could really benefit your life. So check it out, let me know what you think. And thank you for watching me get excited about my new possibly new ankle. I think if we can get it right I'll get to keep it. I got a good gut feeling about this. To you watching this video right now thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. Time is one of the most precious things we have and so the fact that you spent a few minutes hearing about my life and watching me try this out means the world to me. Thank you. You could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys. You coming over to say bye? No, she's coming over for pets always. She's boop. Gotta boot the snoop. It's a requirement. I swear I could just sit here and just pet my dog all day and make that my entire channel because she's so perfect. Bye guys.