Updated: 11:32 AM CDT Mar 22, 2021
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-Everything was going to be different in my life, but different didn’t mean bad, and different didn’t mean incapable, it just meant that I needed to do things in a way that was new and innovative. I’m Tina Hurley, and I’m the owner and founder of a nonprofit called Less Leg More Heart. I was realizing in every aspect of my life my legs started to limit me. The gym was the first place it manifested, and then it was harder to walk my dog around one block. The best way to describe it is you feel like you’re dragging cinderblocks. So, I go see one of the consultants, a vascular surgeon, and he couldn’t find pulses from my knees down when my calves were engaged. Through lots and lots of diagnostic testing, very invasive procedures, I was diagnosed with popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. So, it’s in both of my legs. And, the only way to solve my condition is to amputate above both of the knees. That would get rid of everything. They had to amputate my leg three times, higher and higher after ten failed surgeries, so 13 surgeries in total, in less than three years. Less than six weeks after a big revision of my amputation, I came home and I found all of my husband's things were gone. And, that was like the moment where the last little bit of carpet that was underneath the one leg I had remaining was just ripped. I mean it was just... leveling, the depression was leveling. There were so many holes in care, you know, things that insurance didn’t cover, things that were holistic that weren’t covered that were the real strains on my life emotionally, and also on my support systems. Then, I realized that sitting in my home all day, in that house of memories, was killing me. What has always lifted me? And by default, that I said I need community and physicality. Not everything bad that happens has to stay bad. Remember that you have a place and that you have value, and serve that forward as best you can. i On phone: It might be a really good place to go. /i i -Yeah well when you think about the effect of some kind of longer-term partnership, if we were to get a contact over there, at the amputation center. /i i And then some of the care packages that we have tons of goods for- /i So, Less Leg More Heart, you know, I was seeing ‘Less Leg More..' all these words, and then settles into 'heart.' It just was so compelling for me. Less Leg More Heart is a charity that’s dedicated to helping anyone with a permanent physical impairment, anything that either is congenital, meaning they’re born with it, or is a new, acquired disability. What we’re trying to do is the burden off of these folks emotionally and physically, so they can deal with the new set of circumstances and navigate what is a really rocky terrain. I'm a physiologist and a physician assistant. Nowhere in my studies had I been taught what you do when you don’t have an appendage. You walk around the sun 32 years with something, and then all of a sudden, you wake up and the sheet’s flat where your foot used to be. And they’re just like, “Go figure it out." Really, it’s just, “Go figure it out." So, I have a team of folks, including myself, that will actually be at bedside with someone in hospitals, rehabs, doctors’ offices really just trying to make sure that we’re a double set of eyes for them and their loved ones. I would encourage people that are not familiar with the disability population to approach first with the intention to pump them up. Someone will stop what they’re doing and open-eyed stare and go, “You poor thing." I don’t need sympathy, I need your words of strength. Maybe not saying, "You’re so inspirational," to someone with a disability at the grocery store because they just are grocery shopping. I am going to become a mom first, and then go back to being a PA next year. I am in a wonderful relationship with someone that pulls me by around my hand, and my wheelchair at the end of the day when my legs hurt. We are out there living our best lives, adapting and persevering, turning our trials into triumphs, and just doing the very best we can, just like everybody else on the planet.