Frits
Fritz's story
Frits was in a wheelchair for years and now walks with a prosthesis again. Due to a blood clotting disease, I regularly suffer from bleeding or clots in my body. In 2004, after a major hemorrhage in my right leg (compartment syndrome), this led to an amputation below the knee. After many reoperations my leg had to be amputated through the knee in 2008 (knee disarticulation). You did not just come to us. What went wrong with your first prosthesis? In the rehabilitation center where I rehabilitated, I mastered my first prosthesis for amputation. After many therapies, this finally failed due to all kinds of problems and infections on my stump. Until 2008, a lot of surgery was done to try and get a stump that could tolerate a prosthesis. In 2008 a knee amputation was performed and after this I went into rehabilitation in the hospital where the operation had taken place. This rehabilitation went badly and my stump absolutely didn't want to go in the socket. This due to swelling of the stump, infections and other problems. When I tried to get my stump into the socket, I screamed with pain in the walkway. You really don't get a very swollen stump in a rock hard tube. The practitioners believed that this should work and continued to do so, without giving me any other advice. In retrospect, I experienced this as "beastly". I had to keep a diary with all kinds of pictures of the stump, but little or nothing was done with it. At the end of 2009 I stopped this rehabilitation because wearing a prosthesis was absolutely impossible. Physically I got other problems, but also mentally I couldn't bear it anymore. This was a very tough decision, especially because my further life would then look like from the wheelchair. Just last year I was told by a doctor that I was “the man who wouldn't walk”. And that while I wanted this so badly!!! This comment came in hard and left a deep wound. I couldn't walk, what did you do? Because I stopped the rehabilitation, my wife and I got some rest. We had bought an apartment where everything was barrier-free and where everything was designed for a life in a wheelchair. Despite the limitations, we were very happy with what we had, despite our "changed" life. We wanted to start enjoying things and life again and try to make life meaningful again, even if it was in a wheelchair. Together we turned our "buttons" and entered the battle. We went on vacation again and enjoyed it. Our experience is this; When something like this happens to you, you have to do things yourself because no one else can do that for you! No one referred you to have someone look elsewhere? No, no one said: this could be better, go for a second opinion. The strange thing is that I wanted to try the prosthesis, which was on top of a cupboard, every year, after all, you never knew. Anyway, every year the conclusion was that I couldn't get in, so the prosthesis disappeared back on the cupboard. Until November 2020. Also that year I tried it and to my surprise I slipped right into it. Because my wife was recovering from hip surgery that year, there were crutches in the house and our own physiotherapist came by regularly. And amazingly: I could walk a few steps. Together with the physiotherapist, I decided to give walking with a prosthesis a chance after all and I went to the GP. You wanted to try again? The GP referred me to a rehabilitation clinic. Unfortunately, I was only able to go there after 13 months. Bizarre right? I finally mustered up the courage, wanted to take steps and then you have to wait 13 months. I kindly thanked and started 'googling' and ended up on the site of De Hoogstraat Orthopedietechniek. When I called, to my surprise, I was able to get a second opinion the following week. How did you experience the advice at De Hoogstraat Orthopedietechniek? A world really opened up for us. There were five people who surrounded me with attention. A rehabilitation doctor, two instrument makers and a movement coach. There was a very careful look at possibilities and many questions were asked. That had never been done before. What did I want with the prosthesis? What did I want to do? Where were my ambitions? How was my health? We thought it was a revelation and didn't know what we were experiencing. The following week we were able to contact Protec directly to measure a new tube. The feeling was immediately optimal here. What is your experience at Protec? That was also a great experience. The men there are so involved and very attentive to the human side of life with an amputation. Fitting was done quickly. The tube was fitted and soon after that I was able to practice in the bridge. And there a world opened up for me. I was able to walk immediately with the prosthesis. It fit right away and I have no pain complaints so far. Today I started with a personal running coach and he taught me a lot. He always explains how to walk and especially why. This way I learn to take small steps, to distribute my weight and thus to walk safely and to save energy. What does it mean that you can stand and walk again? It is very special to be able to see everything from a different point of view. I am back on par with others. I do notice in all the muscles that I move in a different way. The people in the apartment complex where we live were amazed to see me walking down the gallery with crutches. And when I went to the grandchildren with a prosthesis for the first time, my grandson was shocked when I stood at the door. How do you view the whole process afterwards? What I experience at De Hoogstraat is completely different from what I experienced in other centres. Here five people looked at my situation and they took an afternoon for that. You feel that they are involved in your ups and downs. A gait analysis was done and I now have a personal coach to teach me how to walk. I missed that involvement before. Want to read more customer testimonials? Click here.
