Karen inserted, “It took me two days for my arm to heal enough that they could put on a prosthesis and I could start moving it. But there was one difference. I had the initial surgery done this way. This is not always possible. The surgery wasn’t available when Janice and Julie had their amputations but every new amputee that is done the old way will lose muscle tone starting the day of their surgery. They have to work to get it back. If that time is short, let’s say a few weeks like Jan and Judd, the time to recover is small. If it is years it may be months as it was for Julie and Janice. I remember Carol telling us about Denise helping her exercise to get back her muscles. But she was an amputee over ten years when she had her revision. I’m sorry. I kind of broke in there.”

Janice responded. “That was good to explain. With this surgery we AK’s are more mobile than a traditional BK amputee. We have a much better connection for the prosthetic limb than any AK or BK and with the movement we are nearly as well off as a BK with function. The new limbs use our muscles to move them which is far more natural than any electric or hydraulic powered unit, they are lighter, more reliable and they don’t run down like the powered ones.”

“So you can move your lower leg with your muscles?”

“Yes. Any AK can. Of course a very high AK who has lost muscle may not have full strength in that knee.”

Although that answer seemed unimportant to the people on stage, it triggered another action. Within ten minutes the receptionists for the show who were relieved when the calls from the previous segment tapered off when the numbers were posted were again deluged with calls asking about who could perform this surgery.

Patti and Karen had a wireless earpiece they could put in to talk to the producer. Heather motioned for Karen to put in hers. When she did Heather told her what was happening. Karen nodded and took out the earpiece. The next break in the conversation she said, “We are getting a lot of calls from people who want to know what doctors do this new surgery. We don’t have that list right now or numbers we can post. Please don’t call our studio for the number. We will have that information, hopefully before the end of the show. We will post it on our web page as soon as it is available. I know the name of the doctor who did my surgery but I want to have a full list. We wouldn’t want any doctor’s office to get all of these calls. They just couldn’t handle them. Please be patient. But remember, I understand, I have an idea how important that movement can be.”

Karen: Chapter One – The Attack

Karen Chapter 41 – Two Years Later Carl

Karen Chapter 43 – Two Years Later Karen