Thank you Southland Triathlon and Multisport Club for the event (and this photo!) I had an absolute blast!

I wanted to try this as soon as the event came up on the local club page: but I had all sorts of apprehensions about it. Here’s how it went.

To be honest, the whole idea of this and what complications might occur absolutely terrified me - and I’m not even scared of flying - I love it! So here’s how my first flight with an artificial leg went.

A psychologist used these words to describe me yesterday, and I seriously couldn’t have disagreed more. So it got me thinking.

Earlier in the week I spoke about the fact that I was going to try out a new sport, to see if I can make it work as an amputee.. well here it is, revealed! ☺️

There’s no way of sugar coating this: an acquired disability is life changing. And even for the most mentally tough, it’s still a giant challenge to accept and work through. As you know I have had a lot of ups and downs trying to navigate this already. But here’s how I’m going about tackling this mountain.

I just can’t even begin to explain how very frustrating it is being helpless in the hand of other people who are the financial decisions makers directly influencing your every move. There are some tough bits, plus some triumphs in today’s Vlog.

It’s fair to say this week has been a challenging one. The battle to recover from a catastrophic injury like amputation is tough. And every bit if not more so, mentally than physically. I’m committed to showing a truthful journey. Including the not so nice parts.

We are moving on to socket #6, still trying to figure out how to best make a bike leg and I have another temporary wheelchair upgrade!

The Mental Health Podcast mentioned in this podcast can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JvKDOioMp74rSuGJEpgOv?si=TzT48r_hQKicatRfe_lo9w

The University of Otago public lecture series is a free offering from the Southland hospital campus of the university where various specialists offer free educational lectures to the public. In part 1/3 this is a recording of Clinical psychologist Henck van Bilsen talking about wisdom therapy.

A very big focus for me at the moment is to deal with the mental and emotional side of the trauma involved in losing a leg (and it actually being someone’s fault). I accidentally found this book, that so far, is possibly one of the best books I have read in a long time (and I have only just started it!)