This blog is just an attempt to tell my story of the life and times of amputee living! For the most part, it won't be anything earth shattering. It will be a light hearted approach to giving you an insight to what it's like to be me! If you're like me, you're already excited about it! If you're an amputee, you'll understand and appreciate a lot of the stories I write. If you're not an amputee, I still hope you can laugh and appreciate the humor involved.
One thing I want to say about having a traumatic accident that takes a limb. It is a life changer and can be the closest thing to death that you may experience, short of death. HOWEVER, you can look at it one of two ways. You can let it take over your life or you can take a deep breath and once the pain is over, you can actually have a lot of fun with it! I chose option no. 2! It doesn't necessarily happen overnight, but don't give up on your dreams, EVER!
Being a young man when I lost my leg and used to being very active, I was determined to continue living my life the same way. I was playing a lot of church league softball and basketball before my accident and decided that I would do everything I could to continue to do that. After some time and rehab, I began by playing softball in my church league. I was so excited! I found out right away, as an amputee, I wasn't quite as agile as I used to be and the prosthetics certainly pale in comparison to today's technological standards. However, I was determined to give it the good old college effort. This particular day, it was very hot and muggy. We were playing two games and I was on the mound for our team (Ok, it's slow pitch softball and there is NO MOUND, but I was still pitching). I hated wearing a suspension belt because it was uncomfortable and cramped my style! So I had a rubber suspension sleeve that rolled up over my knee to hold my leg on. Needless to say that only made my leg even HOTTER! Each inning when I came in, I had to take my leg off and dry it so it wouldn't slip off! One inning there was a high one hopper that I leaped to catch in the air and while in mid air, the leg literally fell to the ground! We're talking HOT!
After I "got myself together", I found myself batting in the next inning and as luck would have it, I fashioned a nice "slow roller" that I like to call a swinging bunt to the left side of the infield. I took off down the first base line determined to beat it out and about midway to first, I realized I was face down in the dirt and thinking, "How in the cat hair did I get down here?" About the same time I realized you could hear a pin drop on the field. Not a peep from our players, other players, spectators or common taters. How odd, I thought! About that time I felt a little wind come over "stumpy"... and I looked toward the pitcher and there lays my leg! What the WHAT?!?!? Just like somebody had placed it there! Ok, Mr. Vanover, you can't get out of this. I all of a sudden became the main attraction, like it or not!
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| Jimmy Stewart as Monty Stratton |
Our opponent's bench and fan base were all along the 1st base line (of course) and finally I heard a whisper from that area, "...that guy's leg came off..." No kidding! Brilliant deduction, Watson! My teammates ran out to the field and I continued to lie on the ground face down but laughing quietly to myself. They saw my chest rising and falling and my shoulders moving and thought maybe I'd gone into convulsions or something but I was seriously cracking up at this point. One of our players leans over, gently taps me on the shoulder and says, "Vanover? Are you alright?" At this point I remembered a line from a 1949 baseball movie "The Stratton Story" about a star Major League baseball player, played by Jimmy Stewart who had lost his leg in a hunting accident during the off season. In the movie, the player eventually decided to try a comeback. As it turned out, he was in a very "similar" situation as I was in, so the line came to me naturally. As I rolled over and through muffled chuckles, I was able to mutter, "I think I started my slide a little early!"
I learned early there was a certain shock value associated with being an amputee. But depending on how I handled the whole thing, I could either put someone at ease or make them very uptight. The folks on the softball field that day were put at ease by my jokes and we all had fun with it.
Kids are the best. Parents don't want them to stare or ask questions. So they go to extremes to keep them away. Sometimes, they can't get away and I long for those moments when I can talk to the kids (insert evil grin here).
Once at a company outing at a professional baseball game, I found myself sitting behind a coworker and his two small children. As luck would have it (for me), the kids couldn't help but stare as the parents tried desperately to keep them from looking. It was hot (again) at the game, and I had managed to pull my leg out of my prosthesis and used it for a drink holder (don't laugh, you're just mad you never thought of it first!) That particular drink holder didn't do much for squelching the kids' enthusiasm for looking at my leg! The parents would apologize to me and I would assure them it was ok and that they were just curious. Finally, about the 4th inning, one of the kids couldn't take it anymore. He just comes out with, "what happened to your leg?" The moment I had been waiting for! Breaking into my Andy Griffith tone, I decided I'd explain to him what "really happened". So I said that when I was a young boy....about (looking a little unsure of the exact age I was)..."well how old are you?" I asked. He said he was 5. So I nodded and said carefully that when I was about "your age", (by this time, the mother looked like she may pass out and had somewhat of a frantic look on her face), I said, "My mother told me I should always eat my vegetables... and when I refused, she told me I'd one day be sorry. So see what happens when you don't eat your vegetables?" His mother breathed a sigh of relief and I could see a smile on her face. But the little girl was still confused. She said, "Well you still have ONE LEG!" I saved the story by telling her that it was at that point I started eating my vegetables! This seemed to satisfy both kids AND the parents!
As George W. Bush may have once said, "There's a saying here in Texas...uh...well everywhere I
Adversity comes to us all at one time or another. If it hasn't come to you yet, be thankful. But hold on because it's coming. How you handle it can make a big difference in how you live the rest of your life. And think of the chances you'll miss on making a positive impact on somebody else's life!
