Amy Purdy Chose To Keep Her Leg And Have The Surgery

After a blood clot forced snowboarder Amy Purdy to choose between keeping her leg or her kidney, she posted on Facebook that she chose her leg and went ahead with surgery and it seems to have gone well.

As previously covered by The Inquisitr, Purdy went into the hospital over the weekend with a cramp in her leg. At the time, she thought it was nothing more than a mechanical problem with the prosthetic, given how active her lifestyle is, and she just needed a tune-up.

Things took a terrifying turn when the doctors revealed that the double amputee had a blood clot extending from her hip to the bottom of her leg. They also informed her that the contrast dye they would use in surgery to save her leg would likely do severe damage to the kidney her father donated to her. So the doctors gave her an impossible choice – do the surgery to keep the leg and risk losing her kidney or amputate the leg to spare her kidney.

After much deliberation, Purdy decided to go through with the surgery Monday to keep her leg and has updated everyone on Tuesday that it went well. Per her update, doctors are also checking on her kidney.

She says someone posted an excerpt from her book that helped put things in perspective.

“We don’t always get to decide which course we go down or know which mountains we’ll face. Yet we always have the most important choice there is: whether to resist, or to give ourselves over to the twists and turns of the terrain. As it goes in snowboarding, so it goes in life.”

Purdy also suggests that her father helped her make the decision to go through with the surgery, saying that before he gave it to her “he put it through much worse.”

The doctors took extra precautions with the surgery, using a small amount of contrast that was merely enough to perform the operation with minimal damage to the kidney.

Purdy says the entire experience has opened her eyes to both the awesome potential of our bodies, yet how delicate they still are. She also related how, as an athlete with prosthetics, she forced herself to her limit and always pushes herself to accomplish more. However, she’s realizing that while her drive and exertion have given her an incredible life, it also put her in the hospital with a blood clot threatening to take her life, her leg, and her kidney.

It’s unlikely she’s going to abandon exercise and athleticism altogether, but this medical scare is making her consider pulling back a little and putting her “health and self-care first.”

She thanked everyone for their “kind words and prayers,” saying her “heart is so full.” Hopefully, her kidney proved to be as strong as she is and she’ll make a speedy recovery with both her leg and her father’s kidney intact.