A SPRING IN MY STEP
When I was at the Paralympics I marvelled at Marlon Shirley's prosthesis -- the state of the art, carbon fibre Cheetah.
Now, following today's visit to the hospital, I'm going to have one of my own.
In order for me to get a feeling for what it was like, prosthetic technician and amputee distance runner Andrew Palmer took his personal Cheetah and attached it to a bespoke socket he'd made up using my measurements.
This afternoon he let me try it out.
It was unbelievable.
It wasn't as good as running with a real foot -- I'd almost go so far as to say it was better!
For the first time in more than a year I was able to sprint.
In fact, the foot was so responsive and returned so much energy that the main problem I encountered was trying to stop. I bounded effortlessly along the corridors of the hospital, the foot propelling me forward like nothing I'd ever felt before.
I, quite literally, had a spring in my step -- and the sight of a slightly out of shape amputee hurtling around the hospital screaming "It's brilliant! It's brilliant!" soon drew a crowd of prosthetists wanting to know what all the fuss was about.
As you might expect, technology like the Cheetah doesn't come cheap -- and my prosthetist, Ian, wasn't about to supply me with one only for it to gather dust in a cupboard.
We talked through how I might use one and agreed to aim for a goal, such as a 10K race, to ensure the leg gets used to its full potential.
The little beauty's now on order -- so expect to see me pounding the streets of west London some time soon.
When I was at the Paralympics I marvelled at Marlon Shirley's prosthesis -- the state of the art, carbon fibre Cheetah.
Now, following today's visit to the hospital, I'm going to have one of my own.
In order for me to get a feeling for what it was like, prosthetic technician and amputee distance runner Andrew Palmer took his personal Cheetah and attached it to a bespoke socket he'd made up using my measurements.
This afternoon he let me try it out.
It was unbelievable.
It wasn't as good as running with a real foot -- I'd almost go so far as to say it was better!
For the first time in more than a year I was able to sprint.
In fact, the foot was so responsive and returned so much energy that the main problem I encountered was trying to stop. I bounded effortlessly along the corridors of the hospital, the foot propelling me forward like nothing I'd ever felt before.
I, quite literally, had a spring in my step -- and the sight of a slightly out of shape amputee hurtling around the hospital screaming "It's brilliant! It's brilliant!" soon drew a crowd of prosthetists wanting to know what all the fuss was about.
As you might expect, technology like the Cheetah doesn't come cheap -- and my prosthetist, Ian, wasn't about to supply me with one only for it to gather dust in a cupboard.
We talked through how I might use one and agreed to aim for a goal, such as a 10K race, to ensure the leg gets used to its full potential.
The little beauty's now on order -- so expect to see me pounding the streets of west London some time soon.
posted by Stuart at 20:12
3 Comments:
Fantastic! Congrats on the new leg.
Just out of curiosity.... is there a specialised leg for playing football? Can imagine some potential problems about the ankle being flexible enough to kick, etc.
Rebecca
Great News ---ENJOY!!!
JEH from Georgia USA :)
Great news, let us know how you get on. I'm sure there's oodles of technology in this thing, but it almost looks like an outta shape boomerang. Amazing.
pieman
www.noodlepie.com
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