Some days, Elisha Nolan gets stares from fellow patients at ProCare Physical Therapy in Carbondale.
Sometimes, those stares turn to full-blown tears.
There's no need for that, though, she tells them.
"I have to explain to them that I'm all right, it was my decision," she said. "It's hard to make them understand that my life is better now."
Indeed, the 29-year-old Factoryville resident's quality of life has improved drastically in the six months since her left leg was amputated above the knee, clearing the way for her to be fitted with a state-of-the-art Genium prosthetic leg at A Step Ahead Prosthetics in Hicksville, N.Y.
The company is among the leading innovators in computerized prosthetic limbs. Its owner, Erik Schaffer, recently was contracted by the producers of the ABC drama "Grey's Anatomy" to develop a prop above-the-knee prosthetic for the character Arizona.
Mrs. Nolan made the decision to have her leg amputated following years of agony caused by a rare condition called pigmented villonodular synovitis. The disease resulted in a succession of noncancerous tumors in her knee.
She had undergone about 25 surgeries to correct the problem, but none of them worked. What she was left with was a limb severely deformed by skin grafts that left her in tremendous chronic pain.
Prosthetics technology has made huge strides in recent years, in part because of the large number of military veterans who now require them. The more Mrs. Nolan looked into prosthetics, the more she became convinced amputation was the right choice for her.
"There was no better time for me to become an amputee than now," said Mrs. Nolan, noting many of the people injured recently during the bombings at the Boston Marathon will require prosthetics. "I saw amputees were running and riding bikes, and I knew I was never going to be able to do those things. Amputees can wear high heels. ... They were living life. I just wanted to be that."
Hopeful
Three weeks after her Oct. 10 surgery at New York City's Hospital for Special Surgery, she began walking on her new leg without crutches. In addition to the three days of therapy she does weekly at ProCare, she travels to A Step Ahead once a week, and has now gotten to the point where she can walk a mile on a treadmill in less than 30 minutes.
"It was like I was meant to be an amputee," Mrs. Nolan said with a laugh. "What I have going for me is I'm pain-free, which is great. But what I'm lacking is strength. I have a lot of work to get where I want to be. But I'm used to physical therapy, so I don't mind the work. I want to be able to ride a bike. I want to be able to run."
Last weekend, she put the leg to the test by walking for a mile in the annual Fred Ciotti Memorial 5K Run/Walk in Carbondale. Members of ProCare's staff walked along with her.
"That's my second family there," she said of the ProCare staff. "They're the reason I walk as well as I walk."
"She's been through much, and she's persevered through all of it. ... She's doing fantastic," said Karen McGraw-Non, facility director for ProCare's Carbondale office and Mrs. Nolan's longtime physical therapist.
Mrs. Nolan was just 13 when she first began experiencing severe swelling in her left knee.
"It was pain that felt like arthritic pain, constant aching," she said.
She'd undergo surgery to remove the tumors, but after several months they'd inevitably come back. She couldn't play sports; walking was hard enough.
At 19, she had 15 surgeries in a three-month span. One of them came with complications that nearly killed her.
She developed a permanent foot drop and lost nearly all function in her leg. She wore a brace, but it caused constant pain, due to a neurological condition she also acquired. At one point, she was taking 12 pain pills a day. She couldn't work, and many days had great difficulty just getting out of bed.
More unsuccessful surgeries followed. Through it, she held on to hope that medical advances would one day give her the chance for recovery.
Plans to help others
Finally, Mrs. Nolan decided on amputation, at first electing to go below the knee. In August 2011, she underwent knee replacement surgery in preparation for the amputation. But the tumors returned, putting an end to that possibility.
When Mrs. Nolan went to A Step Ahead for a consultation with Mr. Schaffer, he bluntly laid out her options.
"He said, 'If you want to live a life without pain, without limitation, you go above the knee or nothing,'" she said.
His assessment proved correct. Six months after the amputation, "I'm completely pain free, medication free," Mrs. Nolan said.
Down the road, she wants to start a blog as a resource for others. And at some point she might write a book about her experiences.
Meanwhile, she's gotten plenty of support from her family. As a show of solidarity, her husband, Patrick, is in the process of getting a prosthetic leg tattoo on his left leg. And her son, Paxton, 6, has adjusted extremely well to her prosthetic, she said.
"He's accepted me, every part of it. I think he knows mommy's not in pain anymore," Mrs. Nolan said. "I'm looking forward to riding a bike with him this summer."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com, @jmcauliffeTT on TwitterMeet Elisha Nolan
Age: 29
Residence: Factoryville
Family: Husband, Patrick; son, Paxton, 6; mother, Alice Manley
Education: Graduate of Lakeland Junior/Senior High School Limb loss facts
April is Limb Loss Awareness Month. Here are some limb loss statistics.
- Nearly two million people are living with limb loss in the United States.
- Primary causes of limb loss include vascular disease, including diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (54 percent), trauma (45 percent) and cancer (less than 2 percent).
- Approximately 185,000 amputations occur in the United States each year.
- African-Americans are up to four times more likely to have an amputation than white Americans.
- Nearly half of the individuals who have an amputation due to vascular disease will die within five years, which is higher than the five-year mortality rates for breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer.
- Up to 55 percent of people with diabetes who have a lower extremity amputation will require amputation of the second leg within two to three years.
Source: Amputee Coalition
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