This is day 4 with my new prosthetic leg. Being totally honest, I liked my meat-leg with a CROW boot better at this point in the game, rather than this. But – it’s very early in the game. We have to wait & see.

This prosthetic is tight. It’s uncomfortable. The way it fits changes from morning to evening, day to day. Hell, it changes while I’m wearing it every 15 minute or so. Sometimes I have blisters, sloppiness in the downside (calf) portion, and I can’t solve it by putting a prosthetic sock on (that I ended up cutting the top half off) to remove the sloppiness because I can’t get my stump into the socket with the extra thickness.

I’m very unsure of myself on my feet. But I know that it’s early. Research tells me it will take 2-4 weeks before I’ll be steady on it without the aid of a cane, walker, or crutches. It will take up to a year to be all-around comfortable with it. Right now, I keep reminding myself I’m only 4 days in.

Someday soon, I would like to be able to go on short hikes, trout fishing, or ride my motorcycle – maybe by the middle to the end of summer. Playing 9 holes of golf would be outstanding! But I’m re-aligning my expectations based on the past 4 days.  I’ll settle for taking a ride down to the river in my Polaris Side-X-Side & enjoying the scenery at this point. While I’m prepping for solo trips to the river, I’ll make my wife Michele go with my while she endures the spiders that hitch a ride along the way.

All that said, I’m optimistic. Long term I think this is going to work out. I really do believe that it will be 6 months to a year before I’m comfortable with the day-to-day use of this new way of life. There are more things than you know that making the decision to have your leg hacked off affects.