 Hello there, my beautiful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. And the last week, over 50,000 new people have joined our little Footless Joe community here. And I've all been asking one question. What the heck happened here? Where did it go? Who took it? Why did this occur? How did I lose my leg? This is, of course, one of the most common questions I get asked. And when it initially occurred, I made a video telling the story. I became an APT about a month and a half ago. But there is so much more that has occurred since then, including losing my leg a second time that I'm gonna share with you guys today. And it's probably not the story you expect when it comes to losing a leg. With that being said, I wanna give a huge thank you to our amazing sponsor, Anna Luisa Jewelry. I am wearing them quite honestly all the time. You can ask any of my friends in real life. I am constantly wearing their super cute, little safety pin earrings or stacking their jewelry. Something I really like doing is stacking their pieces together, whether it's necklaces and earrings and maybe a bracelet, changing up the style and using different pieces to kind of accent each other, depending on how I'm feeling that day. The thing that I really love about Anna Luisa, aside from really liking their designs, is that they are a carbon neutral company. They are all about sustainability, which is something I wanna be supporting. And additionally, their pieces are not something that are gonna break the bank. These make amazing presents as we have the holidays coming up. It's something that I'm investing in this holiday season for friends and family. And fantastically, right now, they are running their biggest sale of the year, which is buy one, get one 60% off. So this is an awesome time. If there are people in your life who like jewelry, who like feeling pretty or fancy or a little sparkly, now is the time to click that link in the description and check out their website. In case it wasn't clear, I genuinely love this company. Also, they got me into gold jewelry. I didn't think I was like a gold person for a long time, like the color gold, right? I always wore silver. And then I started trying some of their stuff and I was like, oh, oh, I feel classy and fancy and I like this. So I hope you check it out. If you use that link in the description, not only does it help to support this channel, but also Anna Luisa is a fantastic company that I feel great supporting. So thank you, Anna Luisa, for supporting this video and let's dive into it. The story, the leg loss story. So jokingly, I like to tell people a lot of different versions of how I lost my leg. You know, Gator got her, the champagne of sharks, a great white shark attack. I always wonder if saying that is like insensitive to people who have lost their limbs to sharks, which I imagine is incredibly traumatic experience and maybe I should stop joking about that. The way my story starts is a little bit less exciting. I was a horse girl as a kid growing up. Like when you think stereotypical horse girl, that was me. I was kind of obsessed. At home schooled, I lived in the forest and eventually I convinced my mom to let me go work at a local barn. So I basically take care of the horses in exchange for occasionally being able to get on one of them in the arena and take her around or something like that. But we never had the money for actual lessons. So I just kind of picked up hints here and there and tips from sometimes instructors who were there who were kind enough to share their wisdom with me or just other gals who were training there. So as a 13 year old, I was pretty adept at walking, trotting, cantering, getting around arena, but oh my God, the vision I had of me being able to gallop through an open field, my ponytail streaming in the breeze behind me, looking elegant and majestic, like A-O-N in Lord of the Rings, was everything my little teenage heart desired. And one day that opportunity actually became available to me. A couple of the cool girls at the barn were gonna take their horses out for a trail ride in this huge open field and I got to tag along. I woke up that morning ready for my dream to come true. And technically it did. But then it took an abrupt left turn. Oh, hi Sophie. Sophie's gonna be joining us. So the horse that I was riding that day was named Georgia and she was an ex thoroughbred racing horse, which in retrospect, maybe not the smartest to take this horse out in an open field where she could just take off. That, my dear Sophie, is precisely what she did. So my two friends who were very skilled riders took off galloping on their horses. Georgia, you know, charges after them because that's what horses do. But I was totally out of control. I did not know what I was doing and I was kind of holding on for dear life. And unfortunately Georgia actually tripped as she was running kind of full speed. I went over her shoulder. I remember hitting the ground, like on the back of my shoulders, almost on my neck. And then I blacked out for like a couple seconds when I came to you, my friends would like run over. They're like, oh my God, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I'm okay. And I went to stand up and then I almost passed out again and quickly realized there was something very, very wrong with my right ankle. Because we had been riding for a little bit, we were not close to any roads or civilization. Georgia had run off. Her legs were fine. Like she didn't break her leg or anything like that. But eventually about an hour later, they got a golf cart out to me. And by that point I was in substantial pain with my ankle. My mom came, picked me up. We went to the emergency room. They actually told me that they had no room for me. And then I should come back a few hours later. And so we're like, okay. By the time we had almost gotten home, the amount of pain I was in was way too high. So we went back, got things checked out. And it turned out that the bottom of my tibia, which is the big bone in your leg here, had broken off like a chunk and then been shoved up an inch into my leg. This was the kind of x-ray that other doctors were being called in to see. Not because it was like a super complicated thing. Not because they wanted a second opinion. Just because the doctors were like, dude, this is cool. Look at this. We've not seen this before. Just a word to the wise, you never want to impress doctors with your skin results, like ever. So it was a significant injury. And I ended up in surgery a few days later for a pair of things. Two months after that surgery, it turned out the bones hadn't healed. So they literally had to break my ankle again in surgery, put things back together and we should have been good to go from there. But unfortunately that was not the case. And it led to years and years of surgeries, trying to save my ankle, trying to put it back together. I had to have an ankle fusion at one point, which is basically where they cut out the ankle joint and they screw your foot to your leg. So like I had a lot of reduced movement, but I could still walk. I could still do things. That's supposed to last like 10 to 15 years. And honestly it did last about 10, but during those 10 years, all throughout high school, all throughout college, I was in increasingly larger amounts of pain. The activities I could do were like slowly being taken away as I was less mobile and in more pain. I was always going in for like, here's my bi-yearly ankle surgery. Okay, let's get that done. Or another injection or another procedure. That cycle went on for 14 years. Surgeries, injections, you know, experimental things. And just honestly at the end of the day, nothing worked. Some things bought me a little bit more time, but by the time I was 27, I could barely walk. I was in a ton of pain. Days were really unpredictable. All of the activities I loved doing were either obscenely painful. So I'd like push through and do them or just couldn't anymore. Like I couldn't take my dogs for a walk around the block. And I was really unhappy and there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel. Like there wasn't hope that this could get better. I remember specifically the last ankle surgery that I had was in March of 2018. And after that surgery, which they were like hopeful could do some things, but it didn't really seem to work. I like met with a surgeon again and was like, okay, so this didn't work. What are next steps? And he was kind of like, well, there aren't any. I think that was the first time that I really began to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't gonna be able to keep my leg. Like doctors had told me throughout the years that when you're 60 or 70, you're gonna have to have a leg amputation because things are gonna progress and progress and get worse and worse. But I wasn't really prepared for it before I was 30. But knowing that there was no hope of this getting better, I began very seriously considering the only good option that I had left, which was to literally cut a limb off. And when I say that they don't make a handbook for that kind of a decision, dear God, it is a really difficult one to make. It took months of talking to surgeons and therapists and family members and friends and getting different opinion like soul searching. But pretty quickly, I knew that that's what I wanted to do because I did not have a hope at life without pain or an ability to walk if I kept my ankle, but at least I had a chance if we chopped this body part off. And so long story short, in October of 2018, I walked into a hospital and four days later was wheeled out without my leg. One of the hardest things about making some kind of decision like this is you have no idea what's waiting for you on the other side. And so it was really a leap of faith for me. And I had been told that if things went smoothly, which I was a perfect candidate for them to go smoothly, I didn't have other existing complicating health issues, right? Like it wasn't traumatic injury, we could plan it, we could prepare for it. I should be able to get a prosthetic leg in like six to eight weeks, which seemed way too fast. Like think about that, you lose a body part and just a handful of weeks later, you're gonna be up walking around. But in the grand scheme of things, it seemed like the recovery process was manageable. And so I moved towards that. And I had my prosthetics appointment and two days before my first prosthetic fitting, I had a really bad fall in a restaurant that was caused by negligence, unfortunately fell directly on my amputated limb, like on the stump. It was incredibly painful and it felt like something was wrong. I spoke with my doctor and I was cleared to go ahead and get that fitting done. So I had my first prosthetic leg and it's a long process of learning how to walk and adjusting to it and everything, right? And everyone says it shouldn't be painful, it's gonna be uncomfortable. But this was so painful all the time in like the first two weeks that I had it, I could not stand it being on me. And so by Christmas, I wasn't really using it at all. And eventually they found out that there was stuff going on because of the fall. Bursa had developed underneath my skin, which is kind of like an internal callus that ended up being very painful. Another one developed because of the fall as well. So I had surgery to fix that. So March of 2019, they went in, removed those things, you know, cleaned things up, should be good to go, went back in for prosthetic spitting a number of weeks later and same thing. It just felt awful. And I felt dumb going back to my surgeons and being like, I don't know, man, I know you guys are doing your best, but this isn't working. And so eventually I requested a CT scan into which they discovered that the original fusion of the bones and my amputation had never healed because of that fall. So I was basically walking on very unhealed, unstable, painful bones. And that just wasn't gonna fly. But unfortunately the only way to effectively fix that was to cut my leg off a second time. I very distinctly remember walking out of that surgeon's office and being like, what the fuck? Did he just say that they have to cut the same leg off again? Like is this, am I going through this whole process all over again? And I am not gonna lie, I did not have an easy time with that. So in August of 2019, they performed another amputation. They also call it overvision. I had some plastic surgery work done where basically they're rerouting the nerves to hopefully help with phantom pain because I had a big problem with that and I still do. But thank God that surgery actually went really smoothly. Recovery took an average amount of time. And by that October, I got fitted for another leg. It felt uncomfortable but not painful, which is what we were shooting for. And I started to learn how to walk. It's such a bizarrely emotional process getting a prosthetic limb because on the one hand, it's like, oh my God, mobility, hope, this is moving forward, this is what I've been waiting for. But then on the other hand, you realize how permanent this difference is and the fact that it's never gonna be the same again, that it's always gonna be different, that it's always gonna be harder, that it's always gonna be an adjustment and that maybe you don't like it. And I definitely had a long acceptance period being like, I'm grateful for my prosthetic leg, but I also hate it, right? Like I felt like a forced relationship where I'm like, well, we're stuck here together, so we're gonna figure out how to get along. But I did put a lot of work into learning to walk properly, maybe not doing as much physical therapy as I should have done, but getting very, very active. And within a couple months, I was doing rock climbing and doing ninja gym stuff, so much more. And in 2020, I was gifted my very first running blade. So I hadn't been able to run since I was 13 because of the ankle issues that I had. And by no means was it the primary motivator, but the idea of the possibility of running being on the table if I did become an amputee was really exciting to me, but running blades are really expensive. They are not, insurance does not cover them to any extent, at least in my current knowledge. And so I was looking at like a long road to get a prosthetic, but my friend Anika happened to have an extra or a similar size. And so she gifted that to me and my amazing prosthetic, Zach, built me a socket and I started to learn to run. And oh gosh, I didn't think I'd get emotional. I told this story enough that like, I'm getting a little choked up, but I still remember running across the parking lot for the first time and just that incredible feeling of, oh my God, I did it. Like this was worth it. Like I can do this now for the first time in my adult life. And I ended up, shocks, goodness, where are these coming from? I ended up being able to run a 5K just a couple months ago. I trained for it a little bit. I could have done a little bit more training, but I completed it. And I really do feel like that moment of crossing the finish line. My dad was waiting for me. He's been a runner his whole life, like a jogger, you know? And crossing the finish line, I just kind of like fell into his arms and like didn't even try to stop the tears. I feel like that was the moment that I thought years for. To really feel like, you know, I knew I had made the right decision all along, but it's hard to hold on to that feeling when I've lost a leg. I'm now in more pain. I now have less mobility. I'm now facing more surgeries, which is the last thing I ever wanted to do. And having all of these question marks about the future. Just the fear and the uncertainty and how overwhelming all of that was, like that moment of crossing the 5K finish line was kind of like, I did it and it was worth it. Don't ruin your mascara, Joe. I took like 10 minutes doing my makeup this morning, which I don't normally do. And I would like it to stay on my face. Link those tears back. I've also been able to start snowboarding. I live in Colorado. Like that is nothing I could ever do before because of my ankle. And now I've done it a number of times and I can like actually stay up on the board, which is pretty impressive because I am not a coordinated individual. You know, previous to losing a limb, most of the stories that I heard were like, you know, battle wounds or some traumatic car accident. And the reality is that a great deal of the reasons that people lose their limbs are vascular or you know, long-term chronic conditions like I faced. It's not always like the alligator or the shark stories. Oftentimes people have to make really hard decisions in their healthcare and what to do with their bodies. I will always be eternally grateful that I got to make that decision. There were a lot of complications and fears that came with the responsibility of like, this is my call. But that is something that has always been very empowering to me knowing that I made that decision and I'm gonna take responsibility for whatever comes after it. Three years into this, it has been quite a journey. It has been so much more than I ever could have expected emotionally, mentally, physically, socially. You name it. It stretched me in ways I didn't even know that I could stretch, but it's been entirely worth it. Because now I get to do things like take my dogs for a WAOK, which I'm not gonna say loudly because she's still right here. And while doing the big things, like running a 5K or snowboarding, like those are cool. It's really just the little moments of being able to walk to my car without having a lot of pain or put my dogs on a leash and wander around the block or go for a hike on the weekend that I will not take for granted and I'm eternally grateful for. A big, big, big thank you goes out to our sponsor on a Luisa jewelry. Am I a good jewelry model here? Like I mentioned, they are running their biggest sale of the year, buy one, get one 60% off. So check out the details in the link down below. If you use that link, it does help to support this channel and you might find some delightful presents for yourself or for somewhere else in your life. Thank you to my incredible and generous patrons who make all of these videos possible. You guys are the reason I can do what I do here. You'll see all my patrons' names playing here in just a moment. To you, lovely friend, watching this video right now. Thank you for taking a few minutes to listen to my story. Like I said, there are so many new people here which I am amazed by and so grateful for and so many community members who I have known for years now. So if you took a moment to listen to my story again and you've already heard it, you're extra a rock star, thank you. But to everyone watching this, you could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else. You chose to hang out with me and hear my little bit of my life story and I really appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys. And her from the sky all about...