Snowboarder vs. Awesome Friends

I've only been back to work a few days.  It's been awesome.

First, my co-workers picked a theme.  Amputee pink flamingos.  There were 100 of these amputee flamingos scattered across my building.  I still haven't found all of them.

Crocheted snow hat, check.  Custom t-shirt with my nickname from coworkers, check.  Yes, this is my tough face.  I constantly look like this.

The back of the shirt continued with the amputee flamingo theme.  Pretty rock solid, except he's clearly wearing a ski boot.

This afternoon I was presented with with this amazing trophy.  Yes.  That is bark from the tree I hit.  A friend of mine captured it from a ski trip to Breckenridge in 2011.  There's a button on the side that, when pressed, plays this song from Karate Kid.

Last Wednesday I had the chance to meet another amputee at OPC, Chris.  It was an arranged date by our prosthetists, Megan and Elliot.  I've been exhausting them with too many questions.

Chris is a personal trainer.  In 2010, a few months after my accident, he was struck by a drunk driver head on while on a dirt bike in his neighborhood.

The doctors were able to salvage his right lower leg with this giant bar.

I honestly have no idea how this femur healed.  Seriously, look at this!  This is from his left leg, which was amputated below the knee.  Chris didn't have a choice.  He was in a medically induced coma because of how bad the injury was, so his wife made the decision for him.

Remember, Chris is a personal trainer.  Can you imagine how tough of a decision this must have been?

Two things.  One.  When Chris woke up, he said he'd run again.  Two.  When doctors told him he had a 50% chance of his femur healing, he said not to worry, it would.

That attitude is inspirational.

See Chris run for the first time on a cheetah leg outside OPC.

See Chris box jump three feet.

See Chris dominate the kettlebell.  Without a leg.  Instant source of inspiration.  He continues to personally train people with two perfectly good legs.  I suspect they are not allowed to quit any exercise.  Check out Chris's 2016 Paralympics website, he could use your help!

I go into OPC tomorrow morning for another test socket process.  My stump has shrunk some more in my new test socket, so I imagine we'll consider a smaller liner and another casting tomorrow.  I'll try to get some video walking in the parking lot with the new fit.

Dr. Attinger emailed me today.  The operation pictures will be here this weekend!

Sorry for the long cliffhangers on the last two parts in the Sixteen Things Series.  I'm off work tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'll have some time to finish those up.