[AMP-L] Musings - 2

[Lawrence G. Hunsicker]

Now that I have broken the ice, I would like two relate two episodes 
since I lost my leg that have left me wondering about myself.  Neither 
is serious.   Neither requires any response.  But if I were 
participating in an Amputee Support Group, I would have discussed them. 
  And I suppose that this is my Amputee Support Group for the time 
being.  So here goes.

#2:  I was returning home by air from another business trip, again 
wearing my prosthesis.  (Yes, I travel a lot.  I'm a Professor of 
Medicine and give a lot of talks, attend meetings, etc.)  As I was 
waiting for the plane to board, a man about my age, a high LAK using 
crutches, walked up dragging a rolling case and plunked down opposite 
me.  Now in the past I wouldn't have paid much notice to this.  But I 
find crutch walking hard enough to do right on its own without adding in 
dragging a rolling suitcase behind me.  He started to read his book, a
pretty big hardback.  When the plane was called he closed his book, put 
on his backpack, took the strap to the rolling suitcase in one hand, 
and, what really floored me, managed somehow to hold the book in his 
other hand as he crutched over to board the plane.  How the hell did he 
manage to do that?  When I use crutches, the best that I can do by way 
of carrying things is to hold a bag if I can wrap the top of it around 
the crutch handle.  And then I am bothered by the bag bouncing against 
my hip as I crutch along.

I wanted desperately to look at him to figure out how he was managing to 
do all of this.  But at the same time, I really didn't want to appear to 
stare at him.  (I suppose that we are all a bit put off be the 
inevitable starers.)  I suppose that if I had been on crutches, or again 
if I had met this guy in an Amputee Support Group, I would have had the 
nerve to say something like, "Gee! That's a neat trick.  How the Hell do 
you do that?"  But instead, I just looked at my feet, got on the plane 
myself, and felt frustrated that I had missed the opportunity to learn 
something useful.

Is there any quiet understanding among amputees that one can ask another 
how he carries off something like this, or is the rule my embarrassed 
silence?  Being one sure changes how one sees other amputees.  (There I 
go.  Last post I said I myslef was bothered by being classified that way 
by others.)

Larry Hunsicker
-- 
Lawrence G. Hunsicker
lhunsicker at mchsi.com