Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior

Risks and Rewards, Tips and Tricks Traveled to the “Happiest Place on Earth” as an amputee   Traveling is exhausting for anyone. Spending a day in an amusement park can take the most energetic person and turn them into a melt down of epic proportions. Add in the heat and humidity of a Florida summer AND thousands of people and it becomes an challenge that the ordinary person strug...

Setbacks Happen, You Are Not Alone   The reality is that after your amputation the journey is just beginning. The journey is filled with ups and downs and everything in between. I wished I could tell you that once your limb physically heals, from the surgery, that it’s all downhill from there but that wouldn’t be accurate for 99% of the amputees. Most of us will deal with 2-3 year...

Enjoy YOUR Journey   Enjoy YOUR Journey     This is YOUR life. It looks like no one else’s and YOU are like no one else in the world….. so why do we compare our journey to everyone else’s? I understand, when life gets hard, and we see someone kicking butt and everything appears to be amazing for them, we wish that was what we had, but don’t be mistaken. Everyone has valleys as well...

Staying Present to Live Fully   I played sports all my life and the one take away from all of those years was that if I wasn’t focused on the moment then I wasn’t going to perform at my best. You’ve heard the saying, “Keep your eye on the ball” or “Keep your eye on the prize” and you have probably understood it in the context it was told to you. I hea...

Normalizing Phantom Pain   No matter what you think, every amputee has issues at some point or another. No one is exempt from phantom pain or phantom sensations even though it appears as they do. Most successful people, meaning those who appear to be living their best life after amputation, do not sit around thinking about phantom pain or wallowing in it, they keep moving, they keep pushing t...

Prepare Yourself! Your steps backward are prepping you to be rocketed forward. Ever feel like you are being held down, pushed backwards, not making forward progress? I’ve been there and it can be so frustrating! Sometimes it feels like you are never going to get back to where you were or progress any further What I have learned over these past 12 years of setbacks and surgeries, backward movement...

Breathe In, Breathe Out   Sometimes we forget one of the most basic of human needs, breathing. Yes, of course we continue to breathe everyday, I’m not saying we stop breathing, what I AM saying is that we forget HOW to breathe. I know I can get caught up in emotions and stress and only do shallow breathes or even hold my breathe, at times. This is not good for us, we must practice takin...

How to overcome adversity to reach the top   The view from the top is always amazing and one we all strive for but that isn’t how life works, is it? What happened when we fail, and fall into a valley? Maybe you have a medical issue, or are struggling in a relationship or job, or maybe you became an amputee, like me. What then? This is the time to focus on what’s in front of you. You need to f...

What to Expect as a New Amputee   As with anything new there is a learning curve. Becoming an amputee is no different. However, since few people know of anyone that’s an amputee before they, themselves, become one, there are so many questions without answers. It seems overwhelming, confusing and quite scary. Have no fear, even though each one of us is very different as we deal with our...

How to Challenge Yourself Through Life’s Storms   What do you when you’ve lost your motivation? What has you derailed? This is often a problem for anyone going through a medical issue, including amputees. As a 5 year amputee myself, I have a different story, one I want to share. I spent most of my life participating in sports of one kind or another, only taking a break when we sta...

The Real Mental Side of Phantom Pain   Ok, let’s talk about Pain. Not just any pain, but the “real” phantom pain. It comes on without warning. It can destroy our mood, our productivity, and our confidence. When it does happen, and for amputees we will all have the pleasure of experiencing it at some point on our journey, it’s enough to cause us to doubt we will ever be...

    Like a little kid excited and waiting for Christmas morning with great anticipation only to be sad when the presents are all opened, stockings are emptied and bedtime arrives once again. We too, can find ourselves wrapped up in waiting for life. We wait for the next appointment, the next fitting, the next promotion, the next relationship, the next thing to be excited about. But what...

An Equine Analogy For Your Motivation     You must look the part. You need to rise up, clean up, and organize yourself if you want to achieve and succeed. Trust me I know! Today I found myself entranced on how much time I spend with my horses grooming them. Why do we do that? Why do we spend so much time brushing them, wiping their faces down, conditioning their mane and tidying them up?...

Find Your Purpose, Set Goals, and Get to Work This is me BEFORE my knee injury that led to amputation Competition gives you focus and direction in life. It helps to define your day, provides a sense of purpose, and helps build character and resilience. All my life I have been competitive. I had big brothers around always “toughening me up”, and sports were an every moment event, whethe...

Your Mindset is Your Greatest Asset   When it comes to getting it done, or being challenged to push through something tough in life, how do you fair? Do you struggle to feel accomplished? Do you feel like you are drowning and there is no way out? Or how about giving up because the going got tough?     If this sounds like something you have been through before, or are going through c...

The New Age of Bionics     What happens to you when you find yourself in a do or die situation? Hugh Herr was in that position as a teenager, barely making it out alive while doing something he loved and excelled at, a savant at his young age. But he didn’t make it out unscathed, he lost both of his legs below the knee. What would you do? At that young age would you have given up,...

From Athlete to Inventor: Making the World Better one Prosthetic At a Time   An incredible story today of a young man’s hard fought journey from super competitive athlete to amputee, to inventor who regained his competitive edge and is helping others do this as well. Mike’s story is one for the books, and write one he did- “Driven to Ride”. His story began with huge ho...

Adaptive Surfing with Swell Surf Foot     The Ocean is healing. The Mana (power) of the ocean has a way of grounding you and setting you free so you can soar. It’s an unbelievable feeling! Just before my 1 year anniversary of my amputation I traveled to Kauai and tried my hand at surfing. I hadn’t been able to get in the ocean, or really any water, for over 5 years due to sur...

TheraV Founder and CEO Amira Radovic We are kicking off Limb Loss/Limb Difference Awareness Month (LLLD) with the founder and CEO of TheraV. Amira found her passion to help people by creating a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical device that helps soften phantom pains through the use of vibration therapy. Phantom pains are a very real, very painful, and often times disabling reaction after losing a l...

The Truth About Being An Amputee   Not everyday is a picnic. This is true for everyone around the world, but when you talk to amputees who lost their limb because of an accident, disease, war, or electively, the operation is just the beginning, not the finale. Once we heal and begin to transition into a prosthetic- wearing person we are just then beginning to experience what amputee life is l...

Skiing as an Amputee   The Canyons, Park City, Utah 2024   I don’t know about you but, sitting in a lodge, sipping a drink in front of a fire sounds wonderful. Doesn’t it? However, I did that for 5 years, while my family all skied and I sat there with tears in my eyes, missing those special moments I knew I’d never get back. My husband taught me to ski when we were teenagers. We had drea...

Don’t Be Normal, Just Be YOU!   A word I try very hard to stay away from using in dialogue is “Normal”, as in, “Is it normal that I haven’t healed yet?” or “Is it normal to feel this way?”, or even “Does my limb look normal to you?”   The reason I stay away from it is because we are all so very different that there cannot be a N...

Stepping Up For Yourself   Last week I stepped up to rescue two horses and help out a family. This family was in search of a good loving home for their gelding and Shetland pony but wanted a place where they would be loved and given a purpose. Too old to be ridden but too useful to be forgotten and left behind. They are perfect for what I’m all about: equine therapy. Horses have such healing...

How Connecting Helps Everyone   It can be so easy to get lost in our own world. We can be so focused on our problems and issues that we can feel isolated and alone in a crowded room. The problem is, even when we aren’t really alone, we get lost in the darkness and can’t find our way out. We forget that as humans we need connections to survive in the world. We need to be heard, see...

Self-Love for the Win “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”                                                                                                           -Lucille Ball     This Valentine’s Day start with YOU!! To love oneself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary. It’s necessary for your mental health. It’s necessary for...