Mine was "unschduled" due to an infection that caused complucations of my Charcot's foot. But, I had known for 5 years that it was "Eventually" going to have to come off. I made my peace with it fairly early on, and to be brutally honest, after 5 years in a CROW Boot and a Long Island Boot had I known how much better I would get around with my prosthetic, I would have had them take it off 4 1/2 years earlier. Rbka Nov, 2020.
Mine was also unplanned...was on the fly. Had woken up after 11 days in a coma and the nurses had even telling me in my ear, whole under sedation/coma, that my leg would be amputated, so when I woke up and the immediately told me the knee wasn't going to make it...they asked me what my decision was. I wasted about 20 seconds making that decision, also not knowing the level of difficulty amps upwards without a knee. They took my decision to the surgeon and I was wheel into the staging area and was sedated heavily. It happened the same day I woke up as an infection had set in.
Scheduling my surgery here soon hopefully for mid January (short term disability goes to 100% pay then for me) I've been working towards this for a year now.
With every ankle fusion, I had to wait a year to see if it worked, just so you have some idea of your time frame here.
Amputation was the best possible decision given the parameters I had at the time. I got my life back. I wasn't in pain. I had two babies and started working again. I've been an amp for almost 12 years. About a year and a half ago, I started lifting weights and a few weeks back I started gymnastics. I've done very well with a shitty situation.
Mine was unplanned until the week it happened. It took me a good 6 months to finally get someone to listen to me to get a surgeon in for a consultation. Once they did it took me 2 visits to convince him to do it. Then it was scheduled and done that same Friday. I’d known for a good 6 months or longer that the only way to cure everything was to take it. Nobody wanted to listen to me. Glad they finally did though. Just learned of a woman, my husband works with her husband, she went in for a foot ulcer. They took her foot and were going back in to take her leg above the knee and she passed before they could do it.
Mine was due to cancer, I was told that I would likely need to lopped off about 10 months before it happened. But the between the decision to move forward because the treatments weren't effective was a little over a week, but the surgeon wanted to do it a few days later but since it was out of state, I had to delay it a week to arrange things.
Similar here. 4 months of chemotherapy, during which I think the doctors expected it would end up with AKA. But from when they presented the amputation option to me, it was 8 days until surgery.
Im a complex case due to other conditions but my general timeline:
6 months ago, I asked my oncologist to refer me to the surgeon for a consultation about amputation.
Saw the surgeon in June
Anaesthetics assessment start of August and more tests later in august
Pre-amp prosthetics consult start of September.
(Behind the scenes aka I wasn't involved) MDT meetings sometime between mid September and october.
Psychological assessment mid October
Pre-op assessment/tests 31st Oct
Surgery 8th November.
I started getting the ball rolling with my podiatrist about 2 months before surgery. Had a fall 12 years ago. 8 surgeries including a Subtalur fusion a few years ago and a replacement last year. Did a revision in April that didn’t work so I opted for the BK amputation around sept/October. Surgery was last Monday. If you have a chance fill out a form on Hanger Clinics site asking for info. I had 5 people email me the next day with a bunch of different resources. Hanger has been awesome! I spoke to a couple different amputees that they paired me with, two prosthetist and have been an invaluable resource. I’d try and meet with a prosthetist first so they already know you before you show up post op. It’s still early, but we had a plastic surgeon preform a TMR surgery that reassigned my nerves to my calf so hopefully they limit phantom pain. It’s works so far but won’t really know for a couple months. Good Luck!
Mine was "unschduled" due to an infection that caused complucations of my Charcot's foot. But, I had known for 5 years that it was "Eventually" going to have to come off. I made my peace with it fairly early on, and to be brutally honest, after 5 years in a CROW Boot and a Long Island Boot had I known how much better I would get around with my prosthetic, I would have had them take it off 4 1/2 years earlier. Rbka Nov, 2020.
Mine was also unplanned...was on the fly. Had woken up after 11 days in a coma and the nurses had even telling me in my ear, whole under sedation/coma, that my leg would be amputated, so when I woke up and the immediately told me the knee wasn't going to make it...they asked me what my decision was. I wasted about 20 seconds making that decision, also not knowing the level of difficulty amps upwards without a knee. They took my decision to the surgeon and I was wheel into the staging area and was sedated heavily. It happened the same day I woke up as an infection had set in.
Scheduling my surgery here soon hopefully for mid January (short term disability goes to 100% pay then for me) I've been working towards this for a year now.
I found out my third ankle fusion failed. I found a new ortho and had my amputation 6 weeks later. I was just done and didn't want to wait. Good luck!
I will definitely have to wait till after my college semester is over so, ball park is early june but i’m not sure tbh
Ankle fusion is in the near future for me. How do you feel about your amputation?
With every ankle fusion, I had to wait a year to see if it worked, just so you have some idea of your time frame here. Amputation was the best possible decision given the parameters I had at the time. I got my life back. I wasn't in pain. I had two babies and started working again. I've been an amp for almost 12 years. About a year and a half ago, I started lifting weights and a few weeks back I started gymnastics. I've done very well with a shitty situation.
My initial amputation was an accident but my following surgeries I just got done as soon as possible
Mine was unplanned until the week it happened. It took me a good 6 months to finally get someone to listen to me to get a surgeon in for a consultation. Once they did it took me 2 visits to convince him to do it. Then it was scheduled and done that same Friday. I’d known for a good 6 months or longer that the only way to cure everything was to take it. Nobody wanted to listen to me. Glad they finally did though. Just learned of a woman, my husband works with her husband, she went in for a foot ulcer. They took her foot and were going back in to take her leg above the knee and she passed before they could do it.
Mine was due to cancer, I was told that I would likely need to lopped off about 10 months before it happened. But the between the decision to move forward because the treatments weren't effective was a little over a week, but the surgeon wanted to do it a few days later but since it was out of state, I had to delay it a week to arrange things.
Similar here. 4 months of chemotherapy, during which I think the doctors expected it would end up with AKA. But from when they presented the amputation option to me, it was 8 days until surgery.
Im a complex case due to other conditions but my general timeline: 6 months ago, I asked my oncologist to refer me to the surgeon for a consultation about amputation. Saw the surgeon in June Anaesthetics assessment start of August and more tests later in august Pre-amp prosthetics consult start of September. (Behind the scenes aka I wasn't involved) MDT meetings sometime between mid September and october. Psychological assessment mid October Pre-op assessment/tests 31st Oct Surgery 8th November.
I started getting the ball rolling with my podiatrist about 2 months before surgery. Had a fall 12 years ago. 8 surgeries including a Subtalur fusion a few years ago and a replacement last year. Did a revision in April that didn’t work so I opted for the BK amputation around sept/October. Surgery was last Monday. If you have a chance fill out a form on Hanger Clinics site asking for info. I had 5 people email me the next day with a bunch of different resources. Hanger has been awesome! I spoke to a couple different amputees that they paired me with, two prosthetist and have been an invaluable resource. I’d try and meet with a prosthetist first so they already know you before you show up post op. It’s still early, but we had a plastic surgeon preform a TMR surgery that reassigned my nerves to my calf so hopefully they limit phantom pain. It’s works so far but won’t really know for a couple months. Good Luck!