A LONG JOURNEY.

My name is Molly Kantor. I’m the daughter of an amputee. My father Mitchell Lee Kantor became an amputee on October 3, 2023. He lost his right leg due to sepsis and infection and also diabetes. He’s in the middle of waiting to hear about virtual visits for a right prosthetic leg and things haven’t been easy since May 4 of 2022.

He lost his right pinky toe and that’s when I knew that his journey would begin. He’d been through a hospital stay and two rehabilitation facilities at the time. Then he came home from the one rehabilitation facility that treated him so well. He was home for seven months and ended up in the hospital again and had transmetatarsal surgery on the right foot and lost the rest of his toes.

Then he went back to rehab again for a few months. He was home for a bit and then back in the hospital again. That’s when it was a decision to have the above-knee amputation of the right leg. He said to me, “Hey if they need to amputate it, they need to amputate it.”

I told him you’re gonna look really cool with a prosthetic leg. My dad’s only 72 years old. He acts young and he gets called young and I think that’s pretty cool.

Now this time My dad ended up in the hospital for three weeks and he will be home for almost two weeks week now. He lost two toes one was a partial amputation of a second toe, and a complete amputation of the pinky toe on his left foot the day before Easter. This year It had to be a second opinion because the hospital wanted to amputate below the knee due to deep vein thrombosis. But now the blood is flowing beautifully, and his right stump has healed completely and he’s moving it up and down.

It’s still a long, continuing journey and he just started up physical therapy and he will be having occupational therapy again. All other healthcare stuff will be handled here at home this time. It was decided that he wanted to come home from the hospital and not go straight to rehab because of his depression.

Later on in late summer or sometime in the fall, we have decided that we will be moving to Pennsylvania to be closer to my sister and her husband and of course, he wants to get a fenced-in yard with a ramp for him and easier for me when I bring groceries in and a back yard that is fenced in yard for our two Australian Labradoodles. I have hope and faith that he will continue more of this journey along with wearing an ostomy bag.

Not only is he a fighter but he’s a warrior. As a family, we have been through so much since my stepmom passed away four years ago and my mom passed away when I was 14. Now my father is focusing on his goal of wanting to walk, get out of bed, and do his internet radio show since he is an internet radio DJ. He is also retired after 25 years of being in shipping and receiving and he also used to work in night clubs. If you are an amputee like my father you can do anything that you set your mind to just don’t spread yourself too thin.