I had an arm amputated- ask me anything

[Stacey1992]

This is my first post on mumsnet so hopefully I’m doing it right! I had my left arm (just above the elbow) amputated when I was 23- if anyone has any questions I’d be happy to answer them!

When you got to hospital did they say it would have to be amputated straight away? Or did they try and save it first?

Do you still do things like driving, cutting up food?

How long was your recovery?

@Wildboar thank you for your questions! It was amputated quite quickly once I got to hospital as the infection was septic and it was in my bloodstream so the tissue had been damaged and was dead. I can still drive (i drive an automatic). Cutting up food is very difficult (I usually just try and cut with a knife) but for tougher things i have to get others to cut it up for me. Recovering took a long time- because I’d had a serious infection and I had been quite unwell I did spend a lot of time at home (I moved straight back in with my parents) recovering from that. I didn’t work for almost 2 years (I did some volunteering in that time but found getting a job again really difficult) and initially I still went out with friends and tried to do normal things but within a short time I found that too difficult and upsetting as I realised I could never really have a completely normal life again. Before it happened I played the piano and violin (both of which I was in orchestras for)- obviously I never recovered to the point that I could do that again. I suppose recovering is something that takes a very long time

Thank you for answering. You are so brave to get to where you are now and to talk so freely about it. I hope you continue to recover and regain the confidence you once had.

@wildboar thank you- that really is very kind of you to say