MetallicCripple

Never

To answer your first question, Neither of my parents have any disabilities of any sort. We believe it was just a defect that occurred while I was developing, nothing from the outside seems to have affected it.

To your second question: All I've known throughout my whole life, is what I have. I never knew what it was like to have ten fingers and fully developed feet. So I guess I learned to enjoy life for what it is, and not dwell on the things I could have had. I have had no psychological problems whatsoever.

The double amputation was my idea in the first place. My feet were not growing normally, in fact, they weren't growing at all, and as I was growing, I was beginning to leave my feet behind. It would affect my balance and height. So, I came up with the idea to amputate so that I could have two prosthetic limbs, with normal sized feet, better balance, and be within the normal height range for my age group. Prosthetic limbs, in a way, have done more for me than surgery, they really help my mobility and turn me into a person that perhaps I could have never been without the legs.

It would seem like that was me, there are many medical papers about me on the internet. They're interesting if you can get passed the medical language barrier. (I sure can't)

My doctors think that, I should be able to have a perfectly normal lifespan. That is if I don't damage my one kidney and I require dialysis. (My other kidney was removed three years ago as it had developed an abscess and almost killed me!)

I do find social life slightly more difficult, I have the occasional good friend, who sticks with me through thick and thin, but people move on to other places. At the moment, I'm quite happy being forever alone.

To me, it's become a normality, I seem to be getting new fingers all the time. It does feel odd at first, with the extra weight and all, but after a few weeks it just feels normal. Luckily I have no problems with my nervous system at all. I do seem to have the inability to feel much pain though, but my doctors seem to think that it's because I have an extremely high threshold, not because of a problem with the nervous system.