Laura doesn't let the amputation stop her

Hi fellow amputees, 

I would like to share my story of how I lost my leg. I hope I can inspire people with my story. Feel free to ask your questions or to send me a message!

It all started in december 2015, where I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer), a rare type of a tumor in my left knee. I had to go trough a lot of chemotherapy, felt sick all the time and I was only 12 years old. I had to go trough a surgery where the bones in my left leg would be replaced with a special "bone" to remove all the tumor cells. Sadly, the surgery went wrong due to my blood circulation that kind of stopped working in my leg. Because of this issue, they had to amputate my leg. I woke up a few days later after this heavy surgery, and I was in a shock. I did not know they did this but I kept going and stayed strong, because I didn't wanna give up. Months later they told me I was cancer free.. finally! After a lot of rehab appointments, training with a basic prosthetic leg, I finally learned how to walk again! It was a very special moment in my life.

A few years later I walked pretty good for a long time, but sadly after I lost some weight in 2020, I got some issues with my stump again. I had a lot of pain, so walking did not go very well for me and after some time, I decided to go through a surgery again. I had a lot of pain with it because I don't got a lot of skin on my stump. The surgery would remove the painful "special bone" in my stump (at the end of my stump) and replace it with a better one to walk good again. This surgery is only a couple months ago for me, this was in November 2021 but it was a succesful surgery!

It was pretty difficult for a 19 year old girl to really be dependent again, so these past few months were heavy for my mental health. I did stay strong and tried to stay positive through it all. 
Luckily now (August 2022) I am able to walk again, with only a few amount of some issues.. but this is something my fellow amputees can relate to. As an amputee you will always have something going on with your leg or whatever it could be haha. 

This is the story of how I had to amputate my leg at the age of 12 and I hope this inspires people to always keep going and to keep your head up, even through the hardest times in your life! You really can do it!

If you would like to hear more stories or if you have got some questions for me, you are free to ask them! 
I also got social media accounts, if you are interested in some amputee content or if you want to learn more about me.. here are my social media links:

tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurahelder
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraa.hlx/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lauratjuhh/

Thank you for your time,
Laura