 Hello there, my beautiful, I almost fell there, okay. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, and delightful. I am unstable, all right, let's try that again. Hello there, my beautiful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today on Footless Joe, where I am Joe, I am missing a foot. And I wanted to share a few major misconceptions that I had about being an amputee before I became one myself. There were a few things that I was really certain of and others that I didn't even think about before I had this amputation surgery that turned out to be very, very wrong. And I wanted to share those with you for a variety of reasons. It makes for a fun video. Also, I think it's good to get this information out for anyone who ever has to consider having any amputation or if you know someone who does. I thought for this video format, we would do something a little bit different. You see, I am home alone for the evening, which is great, it's lovely to have some alone time, but I need to make dinner and I'm usually making dinner for two people. And so, if I'm not making dinner for two people, I usually just grab a bowl of cereal because that's so much easier, but I wanted to actually eat something that was relatively healthy or fresh tonight. And so, as I go through some of the bad ideas I had about amputation, I thought I'd have you guys make dinner with me because it helps me feel less alone. Even though technically I am still alone in my house filming this video, but it feels better. So let's make some sour, creamy chicken formables. I think that's how you say that. All right, well, that's fun. Did you see that? What was that? What was on fire? And talk about some of the things that I was very wrong about. But before we do that, allow me to introduce you to our amazing sponsor. Well, thank you, Past Joe. I appreciate that segue. Feeling safe is something that's really important to human beings. We need to feel safe where we're living, where we're working, but something that not many of us consider is are we safe with what we're doing online? Fortunately, things like identity theft and information theft are a real problem. That is where a VPN comes in. And if you are not worried about your internet safety, first of all, I think it is something that would be important to consider. But secondly, a VPN will also allow you access to all kinds of entertainment that you would not already be able to have. That's where Surfshark comes in. They are a VPN that allows unlimited devices, which is pretty fantastic. Other VPNs do not allow that. 24-7 support, an ad blocker, and more. A VPN, if you don't already know, is a virtual private network that allows you to safely and securely connect without sharing your data. If you're sitting in a coffee shop and you log into Facebook, do you really want the creeper over in the corner being able to grab your information because you're on the same network? No, you don't. Use a VPN. It's what I do. Or on the other hand, if you're interested in accessing content on, say, Netflix or Hulu that is not available in your country, you can use a VPN to change your country. And voila, you have access to more content than you ever could have dreamed. So if you are interested in your internet safety or interested in additional content, check out Surfshark. If you use the code PUTLISTSHOW at checkout, you will get over 80, that's right, 80. Try to sign it with my fingers, it didn't work. Over 80% off at checkout, which is a pretty fabulous deal and I really appreciate Surfshark for sponsoring this video. With that being said, let's dive back in to Joe from a few days ago in the kitchen. Will she make dinner that's edible? I don't know, we're gonna find out. All right, so as my rice cooks, let's talk about one of the first misconceptions I had about being an amputee. This is one thing that I was like really jazzed about. I was like, yeah, I'll finally get that right once I cut my leg off. And I have no idea how I didn't actually think this through a little further. The reason I had an amputation is because I had a fused ankle that had lots and lots of problems. I had had a ton of surgeries on it. It was in a lot of pain, there was nothing else they could do. And I couldn't walk right. Like my ankle was always out to the side, it was always turned out, I was always limping, like my alignment was all thrown off. And I thought if they cut it off, they can just align a leg that's perfectly right for my body and my body alignment will be better without my leg. That was by no means a deciding factor, but that was something when I was like, hey, this could really help some of the other chronic pain that I have. It might help the alignment in my neck and kind of the stress that I hold there if I'm better aligned throughout my whole body. In retrospect, I'm really unsure why I thought a piece of metal would be better aligned to my body than an ankle. This is an amazing contraption, absolutely fantastic engineering. However, it's very difficult to get even the height perfectly right for your hips. It's hard to get the right level of like pressure on the foot. It's a lot of trial and error trying to figure out how, you know, how stiff you want this part of the foot through adjusting screws and things like that. There definitely is not better alignment in my body after missing a leg. I would say it's probably a lot worse. I'm just more aware of it and I can take care of my body a little bit better. But I had this great idea in my head that replacing a human body part with a metal one would fix my alignment issues and I was incorrect. As we move on to chopping peppers, I do want to note that in no way do I regret my decision even with these things that I had misconceptions about. I kind of just looking back, some of them are just kind of funny to me. Like, did I really think that? Did I really not think of that? This was 100% the best and the right option for me. But it has definitely come with some surprises. You know it's getting serious when I pull my hair up. Let's chop some peppers. It may look like I know what I'm doing in the kitchen from this video, but I guarantee you, I do not. I'm always a little intimidated when I step in the kitchen to make anything other than macaroni and cheese or cereal. I'm very good at making cereal. If you need a cereal chef and by chef, I mean someone to like assemble the cereal. I'm your girl. Keep up with the small talk. First call with the breaks off. We don't need to see the far. Yeah, I see you're a hot thing. I know I'm an option. What are you doing? Trying to get some scraps. She's looking for some scraps too, aren't ya? Misconception number two, or rather just something I didn't really think about. The amount of maintenance and lifelong maintenance that it takes to be an amputee was kind of surprising to me. Ooh, that's the bell, meaning our race will be done here pretty shortly. And I was fully aware of the fact that I was gonna have to like find a prosthetist to make my prosthetic leg and then there'd be fitting appointments and things like that. But what I don't think I fully thought through is the fact that from now until the day that I die, if I live an average life, I should have another 50 years left. You know, fingers crossed, here's what I'm hoping. If I make it to like 70, that means I've got 50 years left. Nope, 40, 40, I'm bad at math. Also, that's a lot shorter than I was thinking. That means I've got 40 years left of adjusting screws and alignment and making sure that I have enough socks. All right, let's take this rice off. I always have this problem where I try not to overdo rice and so I always end up underdoing it. So fingers crossed, I did the right amount this time. I was very familiar with the fact that there would be maintenance but the amount of parts and pieces like having a sleeve that needed to be replaced every three to six months, having leg socks to add extra padding when you're walking, those tend to disappear and you gotta buy more of them. Things like refilling special silicon lotion bottles to make sure that rough spots or painful spots on my leg can move a little bit easier in the liner, things like that. I didn't think about the amount of maintenance and the fact that that will be from now until the day that I die. But two years in, realizing that I am always gonna have a relationship with a prosthetist, I don't just get my leg and then we're good, that parts and pieces will get holes unexpectedly and I've gotta replace them or order more or beg with insurance to get me a new one. It was like I said, something I was aware of but the reality of it is a lot more work and mental energy than I expected. Now, speaking of energy, let's talk about energy after I get the bell peppers into the pan. Oil, I had oil. Ha, the sun is setting and I'm getting this like blinding light because I can't actually close those blind. Hopefully that looks all right. Get a nice little drizzle of olive oil. Here's a hoping the sizzling isn't too loud that you can't hear me talking. Thing number three that I got wrong was energy. The amount of energy that it takes to do everyday normal activities. Why does it smell like something is burning? Ooh, okay. All right, well, that's fun. Did you guys see that? Did you see that? What was that? What was on fire? It's normal for things to be on fire when things are cooking but they were flames. Hi, Mikey. Did you come to make sure I was okay? Thank you. Anyways, like I was saying, I was aware of the fact that being an ATT, obviously you're gonna use a little bit more energy for things but I didn't realize how much I would physically feel that with daily activities. I figured, okay, if I'm going for like a 10 mile hike once I'm adjusted to my prosthetic leg and everything, maybe totally understand if I felt a lot more tired then. But it's not even that. It's not even like the exercise is a big thing so much. It's the little things like standing up at the end of a long day and making dinner in the kitchen on my prosthesis. My body is exhausted and I'm soaring weird places and I just wanna lay on a heating pad and go to sleep by six o'clock. Now thankfully, your body does start adjusting to the amount of energy that you need but it's always gonna take 10 to 20% more energy to exist as an ATT. I didn't really factor that into my calculations. I feel like the sizzling is very loud. By the way, I picked this up for like $5 a really long time ago. It's a lemon cistern and I'm very proud of myself for having an actual kitchen tool in the kitchen. I really don't cook that much. It's like the seventh time I've used this. I see you're a hot thing. I know I'm an option. It ain't gonna break my heart. That's too much water. It's burning. Yeah, we're doing great guys, we're doing great. I'm just saying. I think the sauce looks pretty delicious. It just looks like sour cream because it's mostly sour cream. Thing number four that I did not predict about being an amputee. The fact that complications and revisions and having to have more surgeries is actually pretty common. It's not something that's unusual. I had a good number of complications and setbacks, but the more amputees I've talked to, the more I realize that that's pretty normal. Rarely does anyone have a perfectly smooth journey from losing their leg to learning to walk again. I had my amputation October 11th, 2018. Then I had a bad fall in December, which led to a burst of forming, which is like an internal callus that doesn't go away and is pretty painful. Removing that didn't work. Turns out the bones never healed in my leg, so they had to cut more of my leg off a few months after that. And eventually I got to the place where I was able to walk really well. Now, but it took a long time. I had this timeline in my mind of like, I'm gonna have my amputation within eight weeks. I'll get my prosthetic leg. And within a few months after that, I'm gonna be hiking. When the reality was it was more like 18 months. And I think if I'd gone into it with a little bit more of an expectation of setbacks are really common. You never know how your body's gonna respond or react to something. And I think there's an art to learning to roll with the punches. So while what I experienced would have been challenging regardless, I wish I could go back and tell myself that like, hey, this process is gonna take longer than you think and that's okay. Number five, number of legs that are required for activities. Now what I mean by this, and I really hope you can hear me over the chicken sizzling this time, last time it was the bell peppers. You know, I had seen amputees walking around before, lurking in corners as I do now. And I never really thought about the fact that the legs that they were using to walk around a grocery store are not the same legs that amputees use to go for a hike or maybe go for a bike or go running, right? I'd seen amputees with running blades but that was about it. I need to remember to actually keep storing this as I'm talking. Otherwise, we're gonna have some burnt chicken. I remember at my first prosthetics appointment what my first prosthetist, who is not my current prosthetist, asked me was do you wanna be able to wear high heels or go for a hike? Like those were my two options for getting a leg. And you might think, well, you can just get another leg, right? Like if you need a different leg for high heels than you do for hiking, just get another one. But the problem is they're really, really expensive. Prosthetic legs range in pricing. The one that I have right now was about $18,000. Insurance helps pay for that, but it does not pay all of it. And insurance only covers one leg every three years, meaning the leg I have on right now is the only one insurance is gonna pay for for another year and a half. So if I wanna run, I've gotta shell out the money for it or find a grant. Now, thankfully, I have a friend who helped me out and gave me a running blade, which was absolutely amazing. If I wanted to get on a bike, I would need to use a different socket. You know, socket is the part that actually attaches to my body because my walking leg socket wouldn't let me bend my knee far enough to like have that full rotation on the bike. This smells so good. I cooked the rice too long this time. That's okay, very dry and chunky. By the way, if you feel like critiquing any of my cooking etiquette, please feel free. I am by no means a chef, as I've said at least one other time in this video. And I'm still learning. I've been trying to learn to cook a little bit more, do a little bit more in the kitchen. It actually is kind of relaxing at the end of the day to like make your own food, make good food, make maybe good for you food. I mean, this isn't like the healthiest meal ever, but it's definitely healthier than the cereal I was going to have. So to all my cooking and chef friends out there, let me know what I could do better to make this whole thing easier. Timing is definitely something that I need to work on because the rice was kind of cold by the time the chicken was done, but I'm a beginner, I'm still learning. I usually try to clean up as I go, but tonight I've got a live stream right after I film this. So I'm gonna say the dishes for later. Or for Brian, we'll see what happens. And we have success. My friends, success. We're in the process of rearranging our house. So there's sort of things everywhere. This was really good. So as I was saying, as the chicken was coming off our stove, definitely the number of legs for different activities was surprising to me. If you watch one of my recent videos with Annika, I'll link it down below. She talks about having seven or eight different feet, different legs. Now, can you get by with just one? Yes, absolutely. But if you wanna have some fun, if you wanna participate in more things, sometimes you need additional legs and sometimes those are accessible and sometimes they aren't. Thank you for making dinner with me, guys. I legitimately feel less alone. I really appreciate you joining me. Don't talk with your mouth full Joe, that's not polite. So those are the top five things that come to mind when I think of kind of misconceptions or things I didn't think about or things I was just wrong about about amputee life. So the five things I talked about tonight are some like, you know, more challenging things. But the reality is that there have been so many amazing, incredible things that have come along with this journey to things I could never have predicted like you, like all of you watching this channel, like the opportunity to grow and the opportunity to challenge myself in new ways and meet such incredible people and have great conversations and learn more about myself. That's a gift that could never be replaced. I'm so grateful for that. And if I had any misconceptions that amazing things wouldn't come out of this as well, I was definitely incorrect there because I certainly have. I'd love to hear if you like this kind of video, if you like a, you know, dinner and chat sort of video. Let me know in the comment section down below. A huge thank you again to our sponsor. All their information is linked down below and thank you to my patrons for keeping this channel alive and thriving. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. I can never express my gratitude for the support you've given me. To you watching this video, the same thing holds true. I'm so grateful for you being here. Thank you for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today, cooking some chicken shawarma bowls. I really hope I'm saying that right. You could be anywhere in the world doing anything and you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes and I really appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and we will see you in the next video. Now to finish dinner. Bye guys.