 Okay, I just need you to bear witness to the fact that I was about to sit down and film a nice video And then I spilled water all over myself on my branded Sweatshirt. Why can't I adult guys? I've been doing this for a long time. You think I might get the hang of it? Hello there my beautiful talented lovely internet friends welcome back to my channel Thank you for joining me here for my favorite segment that we do here and the only segment that we do here Taboo Tuesdays where we talk talk talk. We talk about taboo topics. I got through well don Joe So right before I became an amputee. I learned a very disturbing fact about amputee life One that made me extremely uncomfortable You'd think maybe one of the many other things about getting your leg chopped off would be the thing that would like push me over The edge, but this was it This was the one that kind of had a visceral reaction for me that I was like Oh wait for the rest of my life That's gonna be the case for me as we dive into date If you would pause for just a moment to hit the like button on this video The reason I'm asking you to do that is because YouTube really likes it If you want to help taboo topics get in front of more people then Just forgot how to use human words and put together sentences if you feel like doing it that would be fantastic But let's talk about why I can't shave my leg So why in the world would it matter if you shave your leg or not shave your leg if you're an amputee? How do those two things actually connect? I remember when I met up with a fellow amputee when I was not yet an amputee to have a conversation about the possibility of This actually happening. I didn't know what questions asked. I was scared I was confused and she was super super kind enough to spend an hour with me I remember her asking do you want to see my leg like that's not gonna gross you out or anything? I was like no, of course not. I would love to see it's not gonna gross me out and so she goes to like take her leg off Hi, kitty. This is cakes cakes is the fluffiest sweetest orange kitty in the history of the universe So we're chatting and she goes to take her leg off cakes You're totally ruining the visual element of this video ruining or making it ten times better Anyways, we're chatting and she goes to take off her leg And she's like by the way I haven't shaved my leg since it was amputated because you you can't shave your leg And then just like pulls it on out for starters I don't have a problem if someone chooses not to shave their legs or shave any part of their body like that's up to I Don't care. I couldn't care less when I thought about the fact that I would be able to shave my leg Like ever I have this thing about symmetry guys like it's really important that things are balanced to me Like if I go to the gym, I can't do eight bicep curls and then seven It's got to be eight and eight and yes, of course, I realize that by being an amputee I am forever not actually, you know balanced Oh, but I hated the idea of not being able to shave my leg and also just from like a Feminine perspective cuz I'm you know feminine from time to time. It's something that I like doing It's kind of like participating in the culture It's what I've always been taught to do and so the idea that I could never again shave one of my legs Was a big shift for me So why is that? Why would it matter? Do you really have to listen to that? Cakes can you move? Oh, thank you Cakes, can you pick a side? If I pet her she'll just like stay in place. That's usually what happens I love how there's just like a random foot in the background So when you have a prosthetic limb your actual limb is encased in something all day every day So all day my leg is inside of this. It's like this rubbery Allow covered sleeve. There's no airflow The whole point is that there's no airflow because there's suction It's a moist dark environment which is a great place for bacteria and all kinds of not great things to grow It's very important that you keep it clean and taken care of and the issue is that if you have any kind of cut or any Kind of opening that can be a serious problem Not even being dramatic that can become a life-threatening problem pretty quickly if you don't get it taken care of and so think about shaving You might accidentally nick yourself also ingrown hairs are ten times easier when you're shaving You get those little red irritated bumps and then your leg is inside this dark moist warm Environment which does not promote healing which does not promote a healthy environment for things and things can go downhill Pretty quickly. I'm gonna go ahead and put my hand on a cake since we're on a cake So I have not shaved my leg since the day of my last amputation I did maybe shave it before my last amputation because I was like I'm not wearing a prosthetic leg anyways What is it gonna matter since my last surgery? I have not touched it with a razor blade and so it's um it just it looks like what it looks like We've got some we've got some weird dark hairs growing. I don't totally love that for it They're also some super duper smooth parts of my leg because my prosthetic limb will rub in different places And then the hair just doesn't grow there anymore. I don't know it just doesn't seem to want to so my limb Come on cakes. I'm trying to show the camera stuff. My limb is just a patchwork quilt of weird hair growth Here's the other thing guys I don't know if you know this, but when they do amputations They essentially take your calf muscle and they wrap it around the front of your leg to give you padding at the bottom of your leg From a hair growth perspective that means that the care that used to grow on the back of your calf Which is generally hairier for most people. I don't know at least it was for me. Maybe that's weird to say It's taboo Tuesdays. We're gonna say it anyways That is now growing on the the front part of my leg because they've literally Rearranged where my muscle is where my skin is where everything is a few people asked me in the video the other day where I made macaroni cheese and then talked about what was going on under my liner If I was shaving my leg because it looked like I had ingrown hairs and I don't But I think I do have ingrown hairs or some kind of skin irritation, but thankfully it's going away I don't know things come things go. It's a weird process. I like how from this angle It looks like I'm just like ridiculously flexible and I'm somehow bending my foot up here I'm just gonna let the camera think that as someone who has had way too many medical procedures I do adhere to the doctor's recommendations not to touch my leg with any kind of you know shaver or razor blades I know some amputees will still shave their leg for me Just personally it does seem like a bit of an unnecessary risk considering everything that tends to go wrong with my body and my procedures So I'm curious if you had any idea that this existed I sure didn't and like I said, it was the one thing that made things real for me I was like that is gonna be an almost daily thing. I will never shave my leg again It's something that I've done for at that point not 27 years because I wasn't shaving my leg when I was like eight but for a significant portion of my life for my entire adult life and Now I can't ever do that again I think it's those little things that make large changes like this become really real and so for me It was the fact that I couldn't shave my leg anymore that sort of jolted things into reality I don't know Would that be a thing for you? Would that be a relief that there's you know 20 seconds less that you have to spend in the shower if you are someone who shaves your legs or would it be a weird thing for you? Like it was for me. Let me know in the comment section down below. Good news is it actually just kind of saves time And it's not terrible. Thank you for joining me Fred taboo Tuesdays guys. I really like doing this series It's not every Tuesday It's just kind of when I feel like it and when I get a video done by Tuesday that I say taboo Tuesdays in where I'm talking About taboo topic if you like this video I would love it if you consider hitting like on this video and subscribe on this channel if you would like to see more Of me in your youtube feed if not no worries I'm not gonna tell you what to do, but I really appreciate you spending a few minutes out of your day here with me Thank you to all of my patrons over on patreon I truly appreciate your support and means the world to me and thank you all for listening to me today I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video