 Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented internet friends and good morning. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today for a morning routine amputee edition. I'm an amputee, thus it is an amputee morning routine, but it's really just what I do in the mornings. So I want to take you through and show you what I'm currently doing when I get up in the morning, how things are working. This is so different than it was a year ago or even a couple months ago. A lot has changed, I think, for the better. Since becoming an amputee, getting up and getting the day started has been, uh, it's not felt normal. It's always felt like a hassle. Like, I had to put thought into it and I feel like I'm finally getting to the point where very little thought is required and I'm able to just, like, go about, do the things I need to do. As a new amputee, still getting used to stuff, getting up in the morning used to feel like a real hassle. Like, took way too much energy. Uh, everything felt like an enormous next step to take. Like, oh my god, I have to put my leg on now. This is too much. And now I finally feel like I've sort of eased into a little bit more normalcy. I still have hiccups, I still have challenging moments, but I finally have a morning routine that really works for me and that I'm really, really excited about. I'm still able to do more and more every day right now. Fingers crossed, it'll continue in that direction. And I finally have a schedule that is starting to work for me both physically and mentally. So, if you've ever wondered what a morning routine looks like in my life or in general in the life of my amputee, this is what mine looks like. Every morning at about 5.30, my alarm will go off. But every morning at about 5.15, my German Shepherd Sophie hops up on the bed, starts kissing my face and pawing me because it's morning and there are things to do, mom. I keep my eye walk, which is a walking crutch, right by my bed. That way I can pop it on the side of my body that happens to be missing a foot and start my morning without having to worry about getting my prosthetic leg on. First thing every morning is to feed the puppy dogs. You know, they get very hungry. They're big dogs. They need food. Having an eye walk has really been helpful with this because when they get up in the morning, they really want to go downstairs quickly and I don't get my leg on very quickly, so using the eye walk to hobble about is really helpful. Next, of course, is coffee. I set my coffee pot to go off every morning at 5.15, so it's nice and warm when I get up. I spend a few minutes listening to an audiobook and sipping my coffee. The best part of any morning. Before heading upstairs to start the most strenuous parts of the day. Lately, my residual limb or sump has been doing pretty well. I've been getting pretty good on my prosthetic leg, so I've started actually exercising every morning. Now, to exercise for me takes a little bit of a hardware. I've got to change out my foot and my ankle on my prosthesis to a different socket. The reason I have to do this is range of motion. I've got to line it up. I've got to make sure it's good and I switch it to my biking socket so I can hop on a stationary bike that I was given. Always got to pet the watchful puppy for good luck. Then I get my liner on here and clip in to be able to ride. Now, I do have to take an inhaler every morning as I have asthma and, you know, exercising means breathing is a little bit challenging. Having this bike has been such a gift in my life, though, because there are a few things that I can really physically push myself at. I'm not able to run yet and my leg isn't out of place where I can do that much, but being able to get on a bike which is low impact means that I can do something that really makes me sweat, that makes me get out of my head and out of my body. It's the one place and time that I don't feel really disabled or impacted by anything. Workouts are really hard, but I like that. I like getting them out of the way in the morning under the watchful guys of puppies. When I'm done with my workout, I usually have to lay down for a couple minutes and I'm always attacked by, you guessed it, a German shepherd. She's very distracting. She's very good at convincing me I should just sit there and pet her and caress her little face instead of getting on with my day, which is what I actually need to do here. I usually have help from Sophie as I get my leg switched back over to my walking leg instead of my biking leg. Getting the alignment right on my leg so I'm actually walking straight can be a little bit challenging sometimes and I always have to double check that I don't have any skin issues popping up, but we're looking good today. So into the shower we go. So ever since I discovered the protrusion at the end of my leg bone, like the little spike, I don't know if you guys remember that, I've been using this silicone lotion and also this silicone pad right here to compensate so that the pressure doesn't go on that part of my leg. Many of you already know this, but this is my liner. This is what is in direct contact with my skin all day. Every night I wash it. Every morning it's dry and usually really cold to put on. I've got to make sure that I'm putting it on the right way. All right, there we go. Because you want the words in the front so that it bends the same way every time you walk. Also, I love that this just like sticks on to me because of that silicone lotion. Having a toilet in the background on one of my video shots is not aesthetically pleasing, but this is actually how I put my light on every morning. So we got to deal with it. Get all the air out and we're good to go. I feel like this is something that's true for everybody, but I've learned lately that it's really important for me to take time to connect with my body and take care of it in whatever way I feel like that day. Exercise is a big part of that for me and sometimes playing with makeup on my face is a good part of that as well. The more I can listen to what I think I need for that day, what my body needs the better. Dealing with disability and physical pain can lead to you feeling really disconnected from yourself, really disconnected from your physical form, and doing things like this actually helps me reconnect, which is really nice. Done with my face. Now it's time to head into work. I do have my rat cage in my office room, so I always stop by, give them some treats in the morning. They definitely deserve it. They are the cutest after all. Now it's time to dive into work. Every day I usually get to my desk around 7.30 or 8. I work for a company as well as working pretty much full time on YouTube as well, so I do a lot of editing. Every day is a little bit different, so I've really enjoyed having an actual morning routine to start with lately. And there we have it. The rest of my morning is usually spent working either at my job or depending on my schedule that day, maybe editing tomorrow's video or whatever that might be. Brian and I both work from home right now, obviously because of the current world situation, but when that's not the case, sometimes I'll head to a coffee shop to work for an hour or two, get a different change of scenery, then head about the rest of my day. But thank you for joining me here for a morning routine. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Are you interested in seeing a night routine? I'm really, I'm still not convinced how interesting it is to see someone else's life. But then again, I watch videos like this on YouTube, so maybe it's more interesting than I think. A huge shout out goes to all my patrons over on Patreon. Thank you so much for supporting me there. If you're interested in becoming a community member of my Patreon, the link is on screen or in the description down below. To you watching this video, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here in this morning with me. I really appreciate you and I appreciate your time. It could be anywhere in the world doing anything you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. And now off to work.