Don’t Rock The Boat

One of the first activities other than wheeling myself around the hallways of rehab was kayaking. There is a great non-profit organization called Power on With Limb Loss located in Springfield, OR. They do all sorts of things such as seminars on different subjects related to being an amputee and various activities and retreats throughout the year. For new amputees, they will pair you up with someone who has been an amputee for a while to help you navigate things, answer questions, or have someone to chat with. The cool thing is your peer will be the same amputee you are, so they understand what you are currently going through. I have become good friends with my peer person, as she is a real hoot and a good person to have in my tribe.

I found this organization to be very helpful, especially navigating as a new amputee. I attended my very first activity hosted by Power on With Limb Loss which was kayaking on a guided tour of Willamette Falls, Oregon City, OR. There was a pretty good turnout of around 20 people with all kinds of amputees, below the knee, and above the knee like myself, and some of the other participants were upper extremity amputees. It did not matter really what kind of amputee you were because we all had something in common, we were all missing body parts.

We received a briefing on the basics of kayaking and how to use a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) and my favorite, getting into the kayak, which was a bit tricky because I had not worked on transferring into anything other than my chair and this took a bit of time for me to figure out and not end up head first in the basin. Once everyone was situated in their kayaks, off to paddling, we went.

I am an avid kayaker, and I thought due to my now being lopsided, I would have an issue with my balance, but this was not the case at all. It was just like old times out on the water. We paddled down the river chatting each other up while somewhat listening to the guide tell us about all the history that took place along the river. At the end of the river, we were greeted by a cool waterfall which for me was the jackpot as I absolutely love waterfalls.

Then it was time to turn around and paddle back to the dock. Once we got to the dock, we were all pulled up a ramp where our wheelchairs, crutches, and other medical aids were waiting for us to transfer back into. This was even more challenging getting out of the kayak because I did not have the leg strength yet in my left leg to push myself up. Luckily I had the help of my wife and staff to help me get the job done and not end up back in the water.

After our excursion, we all decided to go out for pizza and replenish some of the calories we had just burned off. All of us were sitting around the table laughing, exchanging stories, and my favorite, passing around each other’s prosthetics to check out who had the latest and greatest prosthetic technology. I can’t even imagine what the rest of the patrons in the restaurant were thinking while watching all these body parts being passed around the table. To be honest, I had not laughed that much in some time, it and was great to have that laughter back in my life it was time to part ways and get back to our individual lives. As I was wheeling back to our vehicle, it was the first time I realized that even though I was missing a leg, I would not really miss out on anything at all.