How to survive the limb loss healing period by making plans

When new amputees and cancer survivors are in the thick of healing, every day can feel endless. Progress happens so slowly that it can be easy to spiral in an afternoon if you don't have enough tasks to keep yourself preoccupied. For me, the key was making plans for the future, giving myself more motivation to push past the uncomfortable stages, knowing something good was coming. I had plans and wasn't about to miss them because I felt sorry for myself.

I hope you will make two equally important but very different kinds of plans.

Real future plans: The kind of concrete plans you can make for the next few months. You might still be using more assistive devices at this point than you hope to be using once you are fully healed. That's ok. Maybe you won't have enough energy or be able to control your pain enough to last more than a couple of hours. Either way, a short trip out of the house is still better than none. Make the plans anyway and follow through. A visit to your bestie in the next town, a shopping trip when you get your final socket and prosthesis; trust me when I say there is no better feeling than escaping for a few hours when you've been trapped on the couch covered in bandages.

Crazy dream plans: This is where you get to have some real fun. If you could do absolutely anything, go anywhere, where would you go? Who would you bring? Do you want to crowd-surf your prosthesis at EDC while wearing a glow-in-the-dark tasseled bikini? Do you want to squish beach sand between your fake toes as you walk beside the Mediterranean Sea? What about a horseback ride through the Sonoran Desert? Dream it up and write it down. Someday, albeit with some accommodations in place, you can live it. And it will taste so much sweeter because you don't take moments for granted anymore after what you've been through. You fought past the discomfort and pain to get to the stage where you just get to live. Now, go live it up!