In 2010 I had a fall which resulted in a cut on my elbow that I had to receive stitches for. From this fall I became septic and within 48 hours my body temperature had dropped down to 85 degrees, and my kidneys started to shut down.
I was airlifted to Henry Ford where they were considering starting me on dialysis. Before they could start dialysis they had me on life support with a very low chance of surviving the night. This was an incredibly scary time for me with so many unknowns.
After being on life support my kidneys ended up being okay but my lungs had collapsed. I remained on life support for 10 days receiving many antibiotics to help remove the strep bacteria. This bacteria caused me to lose my right leg, part of my left foot, and all of my fingers leaving me with just my thumbs.
My husband, Bret, works with a wonderful man named Roger who is also an amputee. Knowing Roger was an amputee, Bret had many conversations with Roger since my incident happened. He highly recommended giving Nate a call at Bremer Prosthetics and I honestly could not believe he answered the phone.
It was on New Years Eve and so many places were closed including Bremer and Nate was still kind enough to answer the call to his cell phone and talk as if it was any normal day at the office. Nate answered all of our questions and was so caring and compassionate even on his day off.
From there we stayed in contact with Nate and he came out to Henry Ford to see me, even though I had many months to go before I was ready for a shrinker, or anything related to a prosthesis. He gave me comfort knowing he was already investing so much time into my care even before the process had fully begun.
I was in the hospital for 2 months before I was ready to get into my first test socket. I received my first prosthesis in April and they made sure to work around my schedule and have it ready to go prior to heading to Florida.
As my leg continued to heal and change, I have received a few different definitive legs, and I am incredibly impressed with the continued progress to get me into the perfect leg; it fits like a glove and looks so much like my real leg that many people do not even realize that I have a prosthetic leg.
Bremer has given me my life back! They are my champions and I do not know what I would do without them. I am back to sailing, skiing, hiking, camping, dancing and gardening. I do not let my prosthesis stop me from doing anything I want to do.
My husband built me a prosthetic fin for swimming and scuba diving. This leads me into a recent story about my scuba diving adventure in Florida. I mentioned to my husband when preparing to go that I needed my fin and the instructor looked at me very strangely. He asked why I needed a fin as he had no idea I even had a prosthetic leg.
He was shocked when I told him and could not believe how real my prosthetic leg looked. This just confirmed how great a job Brian and Nate did, giving me the perfect components and fit, and how wonderful Jared has done on my skin and cover.
It makes such a huge difference on where you go, and honestly you need to be your own biggest advocate for this. Many times you will be referred to a specific place based on doctor contracts and you need to know that you do not need to follow this.
I am so glad I knew this prior to my amputation. I was referred to another prosthetic company by the hospital that did my amputation, but since I had a wonderful referral from Roger, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
Please do yourself a favor and do your research and go to the best possible place for you. I am incredibly happy with the care I have received at Bremer. Everyone at the office is truly amazing and always willing to go above and beyond for you.
