The Aston Martin Leg (and rehab)

Prici’s 30th birthday

Upon my return from Berlin, I started with my second cycle of chemotherapy and was handling it very well with almost no side effects. Besides losing my hair again I was feeling fit and energized. I was able to celebrate my friend Prici’s 30^th birthday and attend her family brunch, as well as her party in the evening. Being able to do the things I like, like visiting friends I wanted to see and having a little bit of independency made me feel immensely fulfilled again.

At the same time my orthopedic technicians realized that the rental time for the provisory leg was expiring and we needed to look at the final prosthetic leg for me. However, there was one more issue to overcome with the health insurance company. They insisted on me doing the rehab where I would have to have specific walking training and test different legs. Since I was handling the chemo well, I decided to start with an ambulant rehab simultaneously.

I was lucky that the clinic where I got my prosthetic legs done and installed also offers ambulant rehabs. The advantage is having all under one roof and thus if there are any issues with my leg during my training it can be immediately fixed.

To be honest I was happy to have this possibility to work with an ambulant rehab, because you spend several hours there, do your training and your treatments, and in the afternoon you can go back home. So I signed up for the rehab and knew it would be a bit challenging to combine this with the chemo.

How what do my rehab days look like?

Well, the rehab clinic is only 10 minutes drive away from my house, and hence I am able to drive myself each morning. A rehab day lasts around 4-5 hours, starting from 8am or 9am ending at 1pm or 2pm, depending on the treatments and training sessions I have. Daily I have things like: strength and cardio training at the gym for 1 hour, manual therapy (where the muscles are treated), and massages, infrared light, and ergo therapy which is the actual walking training with the prosthetic leg in everyday life. In ergo therapy I practice going up and down stairs, walking downhill and uphill, walking around or over obstacles etc.

On a weekly basis I attend group courses such relaxation training, self exercises, meeting a psychologist and playing table tennis. I am still unable to do any kind of sports, such as tennis or golf, so table tennis is giving me a change of the routine rehab plan and I am really enjoying it.

Testing the Genium Leg by Ottobock

Whilst spending so much time at rehab (well actually only 3 times a week), I used the chance to test different prosthetic legs. I knew that the insurance company was going to make it difficult to give me the leg I requested. On my wish list is the Genium X3 by Ottobock, a leg costing EUR 60,000. This leg is the Aston Martin amongst all prosthetic legs with which you can jog, run, ski, play tennis and golf, and even swim as it is one of the few waterproof legs. To obtain this prosthetic leg however you may have to go to court against the insurance to fight it through, but time was running out and I wanted to look at other more affordable legs to avoid an argument with the insurance company.

Plié 3 Microprocessor controlled knee by Freedom Innovations

Hence, I have tested another leg called Plie 3 by Freedom Innovations, a microprocessor controlled knee. This one is also water resistant, but does not have all those different sport functions as the Genium. It was a great knee to walk with, and I immediately could feel the safety and comfort difference between this leg and the temporary one I have been using since the beginning.

I still tested the Genium (not the X3), which is basically the same as the one explained above but just not waterproof as I was curious to know how this one feels like. Obviously an amazing knee to walk on, but it would be a shame not make full usage of the knee if I am unable to do active sports.

Both of those prosthetics had a very flexible spring system at the foot making it more gentle and comfortable to walk. Eventually, I chose the Plie knee and sent the official request to the insurance company hoping to receive news soon.

Whilst facing my prosthetics dilemma and testing phase, I continued with my 3^rd round of chemo followed by my next check up CT-scan.

It was mid-April (18 April 2016 to be precise) when I went for my CT-scan and it didn’t feel any different than receiving more bad news. The new chemotherapy that I had started in February seemed to not be working and 2 of the existing metastasis on the lungs and the one in the lumbar vertebrae had grown bigger.

So what’s next? At first it seemed that all possible medical treatments were exploited and only some alternative treatments could be an option although not many studies had been carried out. Boldly put my time is running out fast if we don’t find a treatment that helps to slow down the growth and spreading process soonest.