Walking Day!!!

Eight years ago today my life changed forever. I entered my prosthetist's office on crutches, feeling both scared and insecure. After enduring five long years of pain, more surgeries than I care to count, and an amputation, I took my first steps on my prosthetic. Today is my Walking Day.

Walking Day is a concept that developed out of my need to celebrate my accomplishments rather than bemoan my losses. While I'll never forget March 11 (the date of my injury) or July 3 (my ampu-versary), I choose to celebrate the day I took my first steps. After all, it is the date that I began to rebuild my life. In my eyes, it is worthy of celebration!

I am so thankful that my husband (at the time my boyfriend) recorded my Walking Day appointment. It is a video that I have grown to cherish over the years. I have certainly come a long way since I took those first angst and fear-filled steps.

Robby has never known me without a prosthetic. I hope that someday he will watch the video and appreciate my journey and the work that it has taken for me to become the mom he knows. I want him to be proud of me when he grows up.

I will never forget the fear, depression, and hopeless despair that I felt when I first became an amputee. It is terribly isolating to wake up and feel like a stranger to yourself. Remembering those feelings makes me a stronger and better person.

Getting my prosthetic and walking were literally and figuratively my first steps into my new life. I have re-learned to love myself and to accept my limb loss. I have become more active and more outgoing since I became an amputee. I have learned to embrace what makes me different.

Today is a day for happy reflection. I have come so far in eight years. I have learned not only to walk, but to skip, to jump and to run. This is definitely a cake-worthy holiday! Happy Walking Day to me!



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