 morning my beautiful internet friends and welcome back. One of the questions that people often ask me or are like surprised to see if I just show up somewhere and I don't have anybody with me is how do you drive with one foot specifically without your right foot? Cause I am a right below the knee amputee. A valid question, I think we'd all like to know that the people who are driving on the road are doing so safely. So let me walk you through how I actually learned to drive and how I learned to drive the second time when I was missing a leg. First things first, having an automatic car is fantastically helpful in these situations because there's two pedals and you are only supposed to have one foot on each one at a time. Like you shouldn't hit the accelerator and the brake at the same time. Am I right? And that opportunity has been completely removed for me at least for the time being when I don't have a prosthetic leg. I just looked at the viewfinder guys. I look run down and like I haven't showered in days. Let me assure you that is not the case. It's only been like three days since I've showered. Getting ready for a trip. I've been working really hard and so I just didn't, I didn't do anything with a face or my hair today and I hope you love me anyways. Here's the situation. Many of you know my story but I fell off a horse when I was 13 and I had severe ankle problems ever since. Which means that when I was a high schooler here in America learning to drive, we learned to drive when we're at 15 in Colorado and we can get licenses at 16. I was going through surgeries. I couldn't use my ankle really well. It was painful and so most people drive with their right foot here. It only makes sense. The pedals are on the right side. But what I did is I would cross my right leg underneath my left leg. My left leg would go over my right leg and my left leg would just take over control of the pedals. I just drove with my left foot even when I was a teenager. And so if you think about it, we kind of made driving easier because I took the whole having to fold one leg over the other equation completely out of the scenario by removing that leg. Simple, it was all to make driving easier. Just kidding, that's not accurate. Though I was probably technically capable of getting in a car and driving myself maybe three or four weeks after amputation, I don't think I drove myself for like two, maybe three months. I was scared of it. Like I was uncomfortable. I was still on some medications. And so I took my sweet time before I got behind a wheel again after amputation. But to be honest with you, as soon as I did it felt completely natural because I was used to driving with my left foot. Here's another thing. Colorado is a state where you do not have to retake your driver's test. If you lose a limb, which I'll be honest with, I'm really grateful for. I feel like it could make some people nervous. Like if you are a double above knee amputee, to my knowledge, you do not have to retake a driving test to drive. Like if you had prosthetic legs and they worked great and you knew how to use them, you could drive manual car without having to retake your driver's test just with like a normal license, which I think is really cool. They kind of trust people to know how to drive. And there are also modifications that you can make to your car where you could like drive with like accelerating and braking with your hands. But I've actually never looked into those modifications for my car just because I didn't need them. You know, I drive well enough by myself. So how do I drive without a leg? I drive just fine without a foot, leg, whatever. Most of a leg, most of the lower leg. I should have really stick to a classification, but I mean, you know what I mean. You've seen it. Here's the thing, guys. I have made it significantly easier on myself by having an automatic versus a manual car. A manual car requires that you both be at the same time to shift and to drive and accelerate and to brake. And there are amputees who are great at driving that way. They drive that way quite normally, quite typically. And I hope one day to be cool enough to be able to drive a manual car with my prosthetic leg and my meat leg. I think it would probably take a little while to get used to cause I'd really want to know that I could like feel the car through my prosthetic leg, which I imagine has to take a moment to get used to. In the meantime, I mean, automatic cars are a lot more popular over here anyways. And so a couple of years ago, I actually made the switch to this car because my ankle did not like the pressure that was put on it by driving depending on the day. And so I made it so that I could use my left foot whenever I needed to, whenever I wanted to. Long story short, driving as an APT for me is honestly just the same as driving as a two-legged or except that I don't have to fold my leg underneath. I'm kind of grateful that I learned to drive with my left foot because it's so natural to me. It doesn't feel dangerous. It doesn't feel uncomfortable. Side note, driving is a huge relaxation thing for me. I'll drive and I'll listen to audiobooks or podcasts or just music. Driving alone is like one of my favorite things to do if I feel like spending the gas to do so. So I really like having the freedom. And that's one thing that is actually great for me about driving because so many things are different after amputation for me. But driving is, it just feels normal. It just feels like for a few minutes nothing has changed and that's important for me right now as I'm kind of going through this transition. So thank goodness for my car. And I am so grateful for the ability to drive. I don't know if you know this but there are APTs who are also missing arms and legs who can still drive. Like this young man who I think is just, it's so cool to see the adaptations that people make so that they can still have mobility and freedom and independence in the world. I think this is just crazy, crazy cool. I hope that you guys enjoy this video. I would love to hear from you in the comment section. Is driving without a leg what you thought it would be? A huge shout out goes to all of my patrons. I'm truly so grateful for you guys. Thank you for keeping this channel alive and thriving. I love you guys, I'm thinking of you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys.