Athletes & Prostetics

[Joseph Duffy]

Hey,
         It is the greatest feeling in the world to run to exhaution and not
worry about a prostesis fits or if it is gonna break down. I am very gifted
to have more than a very talented prostetist,his name is Peter and he too
has amputees from all over coming to him for a great fit,my prostetist
settles for nothing less than the best and their is no such thing to him as
going back to the old ways of making legs. for example when I first lost my
right leg below the knee about nine years ago due to an industrial
accident,I was told by a prostetist that I can forget about running again
because it is to painful. I was like this for a couple of years,getting
bleeding and breaking down and not doing what I really enjoyed in
life,sprinting and distance running,I was then introduced to peter and the
first thing he told me was that I would return to running distance and
competing in sprinting,He was very right and I did return and are running
everyday.  He also taught me to use the stump muscles as suspension,and now
I never use a suspension sleeve on my evry day leg,I simply use the muscles
for on,However I do use a suspension sleeve for running and sprinting or any
high activity I may be doing...   I feel that any prostetist out there
should never use the phrase "go back to the old stuff" because the amputee
is the one that pays the price,I am not saying to give every amputee a
running leg but that should be given a leg or legs that will make them whole
again,and able to do whatever he or she pleases,now their are alot of good
caring prostetists out there and I happen to be very lucky to have peter,I
geuss what I am trying to say is try to get a great fit and eventually we
will all be very successful,but please do not ever say that one wants to go
back to the old ways,because now we will suffer.

Thanks for listening,now I will go running.

Joe D.