In 1990 I became a member of a group I never thought I’d join – people who are amputees. I was a young mother diagnosed with bone cancer, and like many before me became a warrior in a life and death battle. In that battle I lost my leg.

And that battle was just the beginning. Like many amputees I began the search for the Holy Grail; a prosthesis that fit properly and didn’t cause additional pain. My quest for that perfect prosthesis opened my eyes to the issues amputees must deal with – surgeons who don’t understand prosthetics, prosthetists with skills that have not kept up with technology, and a blame-the-victim attitude.

But by 2005 the pain from a neuroma made wearing my prosthesis impossible. I was at my wit’s end. Then I came across a video tape on a surgical reconstruction technique that claimed to restore strength and relive the pain in amputated limbs. The Ertl reconstruction technique was developed by Janos Ertl in 1920, an orthopedic surgeon, and carried on by his grandsons. Was it possible it could help me?

I learned that the documentary was produced by the Barr Foundation, which is an advocacy group for amputees. Its president, Anthony Barr, is also an amputee who was driven to spread the word about the procedure when his father – also an amputee – underwent the procedure and achieved pain-free mobility after eight years of excruciating pain.

Like anyone who has gone through the trauma of having a limb amputated, the last thing I wanted to consider was another operation. Still, I felt it was my only chance. On April 2, 2005, Dr. Janika Ertl performed the surgery on my leg. During the surgery, Dr. Ertl removed the neuroma and reconstructed the bone and muscle padding at the base of my leg.

After 15 long years, my leg had been reconstructed. It returned to the girth and fullness that it had when it was originally amputated. And the pain was gone! I am forever grateful for the work of Anthony Barr and the Barr Foundation and Dr. Ertl. Because of their dedication, I found hope and my life again.

Meg Wolff

Author Becoming Whole, a soon to be released book on her heroic battle against bone cancer and breast cancer.

http://www.macrobreastcancersurvivors.com