What Is It Like to Have a Prosthetic Leg

Living for more than 30 years with a prosthetic leg, Kevin Shepherd says he feels as if he's encountered most of the hurdles someone thrust into that life would confront.

He'd like to offer others in his situation advice.

"Don't let someone limit you," says Kevin, 57, who does consulting work out of Columbus, Ohio. "You decide what your limits are. Be resilient. Everything you want to do, find a way to do it. In most instances, there's a way."

This from a man who lost his left leg in a car accident more than three decades ago. A man who raised two children, coaching their sports teams, regularly chucking the baseball around the diamond or shooting hoops. A man who cuts and splits wood every year for his wood-burning fireplace. A man who plays in a golf league and swims in his backyard pool throughout the summer.

Living with a prosthetic has slowed him, but it hasn't stopped him.

"I made up my mind pretty early that I was going to try to let it affect me as little as possible," Kevin says. "I was going to do everything that I could to continue doing the things I was doing. I am determined to make the best of it. I can't lay down and become, you know, a nonperson, a nonhuman being. I want to enjoy my life as much as I can."

Rocky start with early prosthetics

Kevin remembers waking up in the hospital after his accident and sensing something was wrong. A nurse let slip that his leg had been amputated above the knee. Once she realized her mistake, she hustled his mom into the room to explain. He was still intubated and could not talk, but he understood.

They sent him home without even speaking to him about a prosthetic. It would be a few months before he would meet with a doctor about one.

"The first one was the most rudimentary kind of prosthetic," he says. "There's a lot of fitting and measurements that go into it. You can't really go right into a higher level of prosthetic because there's swelling. Once the swelling comes down, then it doesn't fit anymore, and that causes a lot of issues with soreness and things like that."

Kevin says he went through stages before arriving at his regular prosthetic. Most of his initial prosthetics were barely usable.

"There was an elastic band that went around my waist and had Velcro on it," he says. "That was how it was held on, and the lower leg just swung by gravity. You kind of kicked with your upper leg to get it to swing, and would land on it. There was no real tension, so you had to be careful. You couldn't take a real big step, because your prosthetic could slip or buckle."

It was 8 months before he received what he calls a "modern" leg. Still, by today's standards, it was rudimentary.

"Those were still gravity legs where you swung it, and it had kind of a belt on it," he says. "The upper part of your leg, it fits into something called a socket. And below the socket was just like a steel pole, you know, and then, like a flange just went in your shoe."

Many of his later prosthetic versions would have rigid ankles, no spring, no bounce. The jolting was hard on his body, especially when trying to stay active. "Your heel hit the ground, and it was like a block of wood hitting the ground," he says.

Today's prosthetics make life easier

Throughout the years, Kevin has seen tremendous advancements in prosthetics. His current prosthetic allows him to pivot his knee and has some bounce in his ankle. It also has a microprocessor that moderates his gait and adjusts to how fast he is walking.

The device is much more comfortable, and he can charge it for about 40 hours of use before it needs a new charge. The outside shell is hard and durable. Kevin says he would expect that anyone needing a new prosthetic in 2024 would go right to a computerized version.

"Looking back, it really is going from caveman to the modern stuff we have now," he says. "Things like that have gone a long way to helping people get along in a more normalized life. It certainly has for me."

Advances in prosthetics might be cost-prohibitive for some

Kevin says he feels fortunate to have had good insurance on every step of his journey. He realizes it might have been a different story without insurance.

"This computerized leg I have now, it's about a $75,000 to $80,000 component," he says. "If you're somebody younger today and you're unemployed or don't have good insurance, I don't know what you do."

He says he knows of organizations that help raise money for prosthetics, such as Limbs for Life and The Prosthetic Foundation.

His prosthetic has a 5-year warranty. And, because he is so active and his doctor monitors him so closely, he usually needs a new one before his warranty is up. His insurance also pays for repairs, which he estimates he needs one or two times a year, and for his pain medication, Gabapentin.

"Have you heard of phantom pain?" he asks. "Phantom pain is pain that a person feels in areas that no longer exist - for me, my lower leg and left foot. I take medication to dull the nerves a little bit and keep those pains from being so intense."

Extremely active, but there are still things he can't do

Kevin says because his leg was amputated above the knee, it is more difficult for him in terms of what he can and can't do.

"Over the years, from talking to prosthetists and doctors, for every joint you lose, it becomes more difficult," he says. "If you lose the tip of the finger, you may not even be affected by it. But, if you lose a finger, you have more of an issue. And then if you lose a hand … [and] so on."

While his mind is limitless, his body is not. Kevin has a hard time walking up flights of stairs. A trip to the beach is difficult, because he doesn't walk well in sand. He can swim, but he must take off his prosthetic.

"Anything that requires typical ambulatory movement for extended periods, I don't know," he says. "It really tires you out. I'm not going to go to Cape Hatteras and climb to the top of a lighthouse. I just pass."

Mental aspect of adjusting to a prosthesis can be difficult

Kevin is open about the mental struggles of dealing with a prosthetic leg, something that bothered him much more when he was younger.

"My confidence level - you're always second-guessing. Is someone looking at me? Is someone pitying me, or are they just being kind?" he says. "Kids laugh and point, you know, things like that. I could probably give you some names of people who distanced themselves from me, and maybe they just weren't comfortable with it. My preference would have been they talked to me about it, and it's never been something that I hide from."

Kevin says early on, he struggled with whether employers would be turned off by the prosthetic.

"Is someone going to want someone who kind of limps around?" he says. "Does that factor into who they're hiring?"

With every romantic relationship, he wrestled with the right time to discuss his leg. For years, he didn't wear shorts. It was only when he moved to a new city, away from people who knew him, that he chose to wear clothes that showed his prosthetic.

"I was like, 'These people don't know me anyway. Why do I care? What if they see me in shorts or not?'" he says. "One day, I threw on some shorts and went to a gas station, put gas in my car, got something to eat, got home, and I was no worse from it."

Kevin says it is really important for anyone getting a new prosthetic to realize there are two sides to their upcoming journey.

"My journey was much more of a mental struggle than it was physical," he says. "I recovered physically pretty quickly. Mentally, it took me a while."

His advice for someone facing a first-time prosthetic?

"Demand the highest level of product you can utilize," he says. "If you can use a computerized leg, demand a computerized leg."

And, he says, surround yourself with positive, supportive people.

"You have to have people you can rely on," he says. "You have to have people you can talk to, have an open conversation with. Get people who help you reestablish your confidence, avoid depression, and keep your head in the game."