It was midsummer in the year 2012, with the hot sun scorching the cracked paving stones of Glasgow when I showed up to hospital in innocence, expecting to undergo a simple keyhole procedure to help with the troublesome infection which had been plaguing me for many moons…
Author Archives: The HopScot
Hobbies of an Amputee: The Stage and The Stump
The inspiration behind writing this post does not come from wanting anybody to feel sorry for me, or to receive any compliments. It’s about trying to give an indication of the choices that people in my situation need to make when it comes to pursuing the things they enjoy…
Some Good News.
2021 was dominated by the stress of being apart from my wife for 14 months. So, with that in mind, it is an absolute pleasure to be able to kick off the new year on this blog by sharing some extremely good news…
17: In The Neck Of Time (Part 2)
There I lay, my face covered with a large green sheet and warm fluid flowing uncomfortably freely from my neck.
For a brief moment I though to myself, “Oh come on, I’ve just survived a major infection, open heart surgery, a surprise amputation, kidney failure and now a tiny cut in my neck is going to do me in…
16: A Key Moment
After over two months in hospital being pumped full of powerful antibiotics and seeing very little reduction in the severity of my infection, it was becoming depressingly clear that the previously suggested “six weeks” of treatment was going to need to be extended…
Have You Ever? Part 5
Are you looking forward to medical advancements related to lost limbs?
Do they rust, get clicky or squeaky?
Would you consider loading it with gadgets and making some kind of Swiss army leg?
15: In The Neck Of Time (Part 1)
You may think the most unpleasant thing I experienced during my hospital recovery was the pain of a cracked open chest, or perhaps the discomfort of the phantom menace.
Maybe it wasn’t something physical, the trauma of waking to find yourself short a limb can be fairly unpleasant.
However…
British Heart Foundation: The Ticker Tapes Podcast
A couple of months ago I was asked by the British Heart Foundation to have a chat about some of my story in an episode of their podcast series “The Ticker Tapes”.
A Year Of Being The HopScot
I love writing these posts but more so than that, I love the interactions that have come from sharing them online. The connections I have made with such a wide range of different people over this last year go far beyond…
7 Things I Didn’t Have To Think About Before I Became An Amputee
Many of you reading this will know that I wasn’t always an amputee and if you didn’t know, well now you do.
In fact, for seventeen years, three months and nine days (not that I’ve ever counted it), I was a perfectly healthy biped with nothing more to worry about than a scraped knee, a congenital heart condition and the occasional winter cold…
The HopScot 