Advocating Through Recovery: A Veteran’s Journey After Limb Loss

Marine veteran and motorcycle enthusiast Ryan Roberts joins host Rachael Auyer to share his journey from a devastating motorcycle accident and 15+ surgeries to choosing amputation, learning to walk again, and getting back on his Harley, on the golf course, and into the water. Ryan explains how he navigated VA benefits, accessed community prosthetic care during Covid, and worked with his prosthetist to match his prosthesis to his goals. This episode is a powerful look at perseverance, self-advocacy, and what’s possible after limb loss.

VA 72-Hour Emergency Care Reporting (For Veterans & Families)
If you’re a veteran and receive emergency care at a non-VA hospital, you generally must report it to the VA within 72 hours so they can coordinate care and payment eligibility.

• VA Emergency Care Reporting Phone: Call the 24/7 VA Emergency Care Reporting hotline at 844-724-7842. The VA must get the notification within 72 hours of when your emergency care starts. 
• Online: Submit the required treatment information through the VA Emergency Care Reporting Portal: https://emergencycarereporting.communitycare.va.gov/compliance

Find a VA location or an in-network community care provider. 

https://www.va.gov/find-locations/?page=1&address=Braselton%2C%20Georgia%2030517%2C%20United%20States&facilityType=provider&serviceType=335E00000X&latitude=34.108645&longitude=-83.762741&radius=49&bounds%5B%5D=-84.12688407004471&bounds%5B%5D=33.728645&bounds%5B%5D=-83.3985979299553&bounds%5B%5D=34.488645000000005&context=Braselton%2C%20Georgia%2030517%2C%20United%20States

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https://www.instagram.com/ryan_r0berts

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Host: Rachael Auyer, Co-Owner, Alliance Prosthetics + Orthotics

Guest: Ryan Roberts, patient of Alliance Prosthetics + Orthotics

Producer: Laine Johnson, Marketing Coordinator, Alliance Prosthetics + Orthotics

Transcript

Ryan Roberts podcast

Wed, Jun 24, 2026 

SPEAKERS

Rachael Auyer, Ryan Roberts

Rachael Auyer  00:02

Welcome back to the Alliance Goal Digger Podcast. This is a podcast where we share stories of perseverance, recovery of people who will prove every day that mobility challenges do not define a person's future. I'm your host, Rachael Auyer. Today's conversation is one that I've been looking forward to, especially for families who have a veteran, or they are a veteran, and they're navigating prosthetic care through the VA system. Thank you for joining me, Ryan Roberts, Marine Veteran.

Ryan Roberts  00:32

Thanks for having me, Rachael.

Rachael Auyer  00:33

One thing to point out is that Ryan did not experience limb loss during his time as an active duty marine. This is actually an important distinction, as this is something that he gets asked, or maybe you might be wondering how he lost his limb. He will share that later, but we do want to take a moment and thank all of our veterans for serving our country. Thank you so much for the freedom we get to share in America. Ryan, thanks so much for being on the podcast. I was hoping you could introduce yourself, talk about your family, and then, as you see fit, share about your story and how you became a patient here at Alliance.

Ryan Roberts  01:10

Absolutely, I was in the Marine Corps active duty from 1998 to 2003 Moved to the North Georgia area immediately after getting out of the Marine Corps, and have lived here ever since I started a home inspection company in 2009 which is still going strong. I am married, my wife Jenny, and I have four kids. I have boy girl twins that'll be 18 in August, and that's right. I have an 18 year old stepdaughter and 25 year old stepson.

Rachael Auyer  01:52

No, we share that we both have 18 year olds. Well, almost 18 year olds in August, and I know it's so much fun navigating teenage years. I wondered if you wouldn't mind sharing how you lost your limb and kind of the events of the motorcycle accident and your deep love for motorcycles.

Ryan Roberts  02:10

Yeah, absolutely. I've been riding motorcycles since I would say full time, since 2004 Have always enjoyed it. Found an awesome group in 2014 Yeah, 2014 Found a motorcycle club called the Leathernecks, which is a nationwide motorcycle club. And to be, to be a member, you have to be either a marine or a navy corpsman.

Rachael Auyer  02:43

Okay, so it's exclusive.

Ryan Roberts  02:46

It's pretty exclusive. Yep, so that really kind of, you know, when I, when I joined that motorcycle club, it really kind of ramped up,

Rachael Auyer  02:54

yeah

Ryan Roberts  02:54

The amount of riding that I, that I was doing, and now it was great, because now I had a reason to, you know, ride a lot of miles and go on long out of town trips, and, and really just spend a lot of time riding and around my comrades that have, you know, the same interests,

Rachael Auyer  03:17

yeah, lived experiences, yeah,

Ryan Roberts  03:20

and then so January 28 2020 my wife Jenny and I were on the way home, it was January, so it gets dark kind of early, and it had just gotten dark, it was like probably 615 615 630 and a car that was waiting to turn when we pass by, thought that we were in the turn lane, and we were going to yield, and they turned directly into the side of the motorcycle, and we were going between 40 and 45 and it was a, I think it was a Tahoe or Suburban, so it's not gonna,

Rachael Auyer  03:57

it's not a Honda Civic, 

Ryan Roberts  03:58

it's not gonna give much,

Rachael Auyer  04:01

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  04:01

so it, it just pretty much slammed into, if you can imagine, where your left leg would be for the rider, and we, that's where it all, that's where journey with you started.

Rachael Auyer  04:17

I know, I think the cool and also just providential part of your story is that there were, I believe, it was firefighters or EMS that were coming back from a Mexican meal.

Ryan Roberts  04:29

Well, it actually happened right, the intersection that it happened was an intersection to turn into a neighborhood, and there was a firehouse right there. When the accident happened, the fire truck was actually sitting at the stop sign, and they were going to dinner,

Rachael Auyer  04:44

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  04:44

and they saw it right in front of them happen, you know, keeping in touch and talking with them, you know, several of those firefighters, they, they've got a really interesting story from their perspective, you know, they, the firefighter driving the truck,

Rachael Auyer  04:59

yeah.

Ryan Roberts  05:00

told me, you know, they saw the accident, parts of the motorcycle flew and hit the hit the fire truck, and he said that they just immediately went into, you know, this. We see this all the time. It usually doesn't happen in front of us, where we can just walk, you know, 50 feet and be at the scene, but they knew what to do, and he, he tells a funny story about how he didn't even put the, the fire truck in park, he jumped, he went to jump out of the truck, and the truck started rolling, that I mean, I think that, that tells you how quickly they were trying to respond, and I mean, it's a good thing that it's a very, very good thing, and a blessing that they were there, because I had a compound fracture on my femur, compound fracture of is it tibia and fibula.

Rachael Auyer  05:51

I can run your insurance, I'm not great at body parts, so we're just gonna say whatever you want. 

Ryan Roberts  05:55

So pretty much everybody, every bone in my left leg was broken.

Rachael Auyer  05:58

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  05:59

my femoral artery was torn,

Rachael Auyer  06:01

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  06:02

which is really the firefighters being there was a true blessing, because they immediately put a tourniquet on my leg 

Rachael Auyer  06:08

and saved your life. 

Ryan Roberts  06:10

And then I had, I think, I broke every rib, front and back, on the left side, ruptured my spleen, collapsed lung. Luckily, neither one of us had any like head and neck injuries. Somehow, I mean, we flew. There's only about 10 seconds of the whole thing that I don't recall, and that was flying through the air, but I remember hitting the ground, landing on my back, and the first thing that I noticed is I couldn't, like, get a breath in, like, you know, like all the air, all the wind was just knocked out of me, and I couldn't, and I kind of, you know, tried really hard, and finally like took a breath, and I was like, okay, I'm good, I can breathe, I'm okay, but laying there on my back, firefighters running over, I wasn't sure where Jenny was, she wasn't sure where I was, we actually were pretty close,

Rachael Auyer  07:02

okay,

Ryan Roberts  07:02

together. I remember trying to look around, but it was dark, and there's lights and flashing lights, and it's hard to see, and I've got, you know, flashlights in my eyes, and but the firefighters ran over, took care of us. Jenny had some pretty bad lacerations on her left leg as well, like all the way up her shin, across her thigh, that all had to be, you know, stapled up. She had some nerve damage in her lower left leg, which caused some issues, and eventually got back to, I don't know, if she'd say 100% she may say 100% but like 99% I would say she doesn't have any issues.

Rachael Auyer  07:43

No, I don't think anything could stop her. She is a go-getter, just like you, for sure.

Ryan Roberts  07:48

Absolutely. So, quick trip to the emergency room. 

Rachael Auyer  07:53

Yeah, 

Ryan Roberts  07:53

after that, 

Rachael Auyer  07:54

yeah, they flew through the air and landed, and I'm not sure if you would remember all of the physicians and everything that they've done, but part of our story is that we have a mutual friend and I am on this group chat and they share your name of pray for this person and I don't know that we're ever going to intersect in professional terms, but I'm praying for you at the same time Jason gets a call to go in to see someone, and in our home we're HIPAA compliant, I promise everyone, but it's like, yeah, I got to see a guy named Ryan Roberts, and I was like, okay, but I'm praying for Ryan Roberts, what's going on, and so he shares the story, and we don't say anything to our small group, but he goes in, and you happen to be the patient, and I had been praying for you all the way into the room where my husband was going to meet you and talk about this potential, and I know it wasn't right away that they talked about amputation, I didn't know if you wanted to talk about all the surgeries you had, and kind of how you made that decision to move forward with the amputation.

Ryan Roberts  09:07

So, at first, you know, they, they pieced me all back together with, you know, titanium rods, and did a debriefment, and sewed everything up or stapled everything,

Rachael Auyer  09:24

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  09:24

put everything back together as best they could. I had, I think, as soon as I got to the hospital, they, they were giving me morphine on the way to the hospital in the ambulance,

Rachael Auyer  09:36

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  09:37

and I remember being rolled in to the ER, and I remember being on, you know, being on a big, like, you know, their triage, like a big, big table, almost like a, almost like an operating room, but it wasn't an operating room, at least I don't recall it being lots of people around, I remember the hospital chaplain coming over and. Asking me if it'd be okay if we said a prayer, and I said absolutely, and we prayed, and I'm pretty sure that they might have had the needle in me for anesthesia already, because that was that was really it.

Rachael Auyer  10:15

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  10:15

and I woke up after that in recovery from that initial surgery with an, like, an, you know, exoskeleton on my leg in the waiting area, I had a trach, which was horrible when you're awake, and I remember Jenny, I don't think she had to beg and plead, I think they just understood, and they rolled her down. I remember, I think I still had a neck brace on, too. So, I like, I couldn't really, like, see, I couldn't, you know, turn my head and look around the room. The, I'm not going to say what hospital it was to protect and get anyone in trouble, but the security guard was a Navy veteran, and a lot of my Leathernecks started showing up at the hospital,

Rachael Auyer  11:05

of course,

Ryan Roberts  11:06

and I remember waking up in the recovery room, and the one thing that I remember that kind of stands out, besides being able to like hold Jenny's hand, you know, a brief visit from her, is some of some of my guys were like in the recovery room, and I'm thinking, like,

Rachael Auyer  11:22

who let you back here? 

Ryan Roberts  11:23

How did you guys get back here? 

Rachael Auyer  11:25

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  11:26

did you wash your hands?

Rachael Auyer  11:27

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  11:28

and then I hear the nurse saying, you guys got to hold it down, this is a recovery room, and I have to kick you out if you don't hold it down, because they were there, was a lot of chatter, yeah, they were,

Rachael Auyer  11:41

I mean, they're your buddies, of course.

Ryan Roberts  11:44

So, I had a total of 15 surgeries that may or may not include, I know, I think it was 15 surgeries for my leg, and then they also had to embolize my spleen because it was bleeding and they couldn't, and it, I think they waited as long as they could, and then ended up doing a spleen embolization. Yes,

Rachael Auyer  12:05

I mean, we're gonna go with sounds good. Sounds good.

Ryan Roberts  12:09

So, 15 surgeries total.

Rachael Auyer  12:12

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  12:12

there's a lot. I was on a lot of pain meds, obviously.

Rachael Auyer  12:17

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  12:17

so there's a lot of fuzzy moments. It's really hard to keep track of the days and times, but I know that I had at least a couple surgeries after that initial one,

Rachael Auyer  12:31

yes,

Ryan Roberts  12:31

that were that were clean out or debriefment, and then all of a sudden one day I started running a fever,

Rachael Auyer  12:41

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  12:41

and my white blood cell count, like, skyrocketed, and it was like a low-grade fever, but it, the way it felt, it really felt like it was gonna, like, I felt like it was gonna kill me from the inside, and it was way worse than what was going on anywhere else, I just knew that you know that the infection that you know they eventually, not eventually, but they did, they confirmed, like, yeah, there's an infection after that. They started a couple more surgeries and skin graft, and then, like, some waiting the lower part of my leg, like my shin area, just it was infected, and they, and they tried, tried to do a lot, and then probably prematurely after, after getting a visit from a what at the time was a friend of a friend,

Rachael Auyer  13:36

right,

Ryan Roberts  13:36

came came by the hospital, and he was a left below knee amputee, and he was an amputee because of a motorcycle accident, and he came in, and the first thing he did was start talking to me about his experience, which is, I think, especially if someone was in a very, very similar experience, and they walk in to your hospital room. I think it immediately gave me hope that eventually I'm going to be able to

Rachael Auyer  14:08

walk in, 

Ryan Roberts  14:09

walk around like him.

Rachael Auyer  14:11

Yep,

Ryan Roberts  14:11

so we, we talked, even took his prosthetic off and handed it to me, and I'm looking at it, because I, that was at the point where I said prematurely a minute ago, everyone else thought I prematurely started talking about amputation,

Rachael Auyer  14:28

right.

Ryan Roberts  14:29

And nobody, nobody, you know, at first nobody wanted to hear it, you know, even the orthopedic doctor that did all of my surgeries, and in the end ended up doing my amputation, he even told us we're not in the business of removing body parts, right? We're in the business of saving body parts. So they wanted to do everything that they could do, and I wouldn't say I was adamant, but I think they could tell that I was pretty confident in that decision, especially knowing that. Had an infection. I had a fever. I felt really bad. They were giving me as many antibiotic antibiotics as they possibly could, and it really wasn't making a difference. So, before they ever said it, I was talking about it, and they had a lot of different doctors come and visit me and talk to me. Our friend that came to the hospital that had had that, you know, very similar experience. His accident at that point, it was more than 10 years, maybe 12-15, years before that,

Rachael Auyer  15:31

right.

Ryan Roberts  15:31

And he told me a story of how many years that he spent trying to save his leg and avoiding amputation, and then ending up as a below knee amputee.

Rachael Auyer  15:44

Yes,

Ryan Roberts  15:44

I want to say it was almost 10 years that he, that he, you know, fought that, fought that battle, and ended up, you know, being an amputee.

Rachael Auyer  15:53

Yeah, even two, five years. I mean, that it's a lot of surgery, a lot of time down, and it's hard for I would say those that have not worked with patients living with limb loss and those that are experiencing the full life that's available to imagine that amputation is not failure, it's actually sometimes the most medically appropriate decision. I love that our physicians in our area are in the limb salvage and saving business, because that's what you want your physician to try to do. However, you kind of knew you, I, you knew, and that's kind of where it picks up where I got to meet you, and it made sense when I saw you in the hospital. I don't think people realize that you were not going to stay in a hospital bed, that just wasn't part of what you envisioned your recovery to be, and so kind of talk about that decision of you made it. I know Jenny wasn't 100% on board at first, but then really saw that this was the right decision for you. What key factors helped you have peace with that decision?

Ryan Roberts  17:01

I think seeing seeing someone else in a very similar situation was definitely probably the most important. I've also known amputees right throughout my interaction with, you know, veterans,

Rachael Auyer  17:20

right,

Ryan Roberts  17:20

because at that point I had been out of the Marine Corps for like 17 years,

Rachael Auyer  17:27

right,

Ryan Roberts  17:28

and there's been a lot of conflicts around that time and since, and there's a lot of amputees. I know another army veteran that is a left above knee amputee, and I knew him before this, my accident, and he rides a motorcycle, so I had a lot of motivation.

Rachael Auyer  17:48

Right,

Ryan Roberts  17:49

I'm also, I'm a pretty impatient person, and I'm also a very stubborn person. So, my goal was to heal up and get out of the hospital and pick up where I left off, and I knew that them doing that amputation was the quickest road to accomplish in that.

Rachael Auyer  18:08

Yeah, that makes sense. And you were right, and so you decided to have an amputation, which means you need a prosthetist. So, my husband, and best known as Jason here, walks in with ice cream, I think, and, or at one point, ice cream, and you are chatting about what you guys want to do. I think the part that our audience needs to know is that it was also during Covid that all of this is happening. You decide that you want to move forward with a prosthesis. The key here is that you're a veteran, your benefits are through the VA, so why don't you talk about how that worked for you and how you started navigating while being very unwell. I mean, you've been through a motorcycle accident, multiple surgeries. How did you engage with the VA to say, "I'm going to have an amputation, I'm going to have a prosthesis. How does this work?"

Ryan Roberts  19:02

Well, that's a great question, and I've got some advice for veterans at the end, at the end of this. So, I had never, I had never been to a non-VA, like a civilian emergency room since, well, since I left the Marine Corps, so once we were able to, we, you know, I told everyone, and Jenny did as well. He has VA healthcare, and the VAs, the way the VA usually works is once you're you're stable and not in danger, they will usually, at that time, they would usually transfer you to a VA hospital and let the VA do most of the procedures, if, if you're stable, and if they're able to.

Rachael Auyer  19:51

Right,

Ryan Roberts  19:51

what I didn't know was that they, no one ever really shared any of the information of. What was going on with the VA while it was happening during my hospital stay? When I got discharged from the hospital, finally I called the VA, probably within it might have even been that night I called, I called the VA and said, hey, this is what happened, I just got discharged and I need, I have a, you know, a big stack of prescriptions for all these different meds. I was still on antibiotics, so they, they jump right in, and they sent a nurse to the house. They showed Jenny how to do the infusions. This was after I was, I was having to go to the hospital every day,

Rachael Auyer  20:42

that's right,

Ryan Roberts  20:42

and have the antibiotic infusion, which took half an hour for the infusion, so that would have been end of February. Covid really became like I remember I was sitting in the infusion center one day, and all the nurses that walked in had masks on,

Rachael Auyer  21:00

yep,

Ryan Roberts  21:00

and I asked, I've been doing this for, you know, a couple weeks. Why is everyone wearing a mask? And they told, you know, they, they didn't have.. I don't think anybody really had a lot of information.

Rachael Auyer  21:12

No, none of us did.

Ryan Roberts  21:13

Yeah, but they said, oh, well, there's this like Covid 19, and we're just trying to be safe, and I think that's really about all I got out of them, and it was shortly after that it kind of became a true, you know, pandemic, where that's all that was on the news. Things are closing down, all the things that happened during Covid. So, the VA sent a nurse to the house and taught Jenny how to connect my antibiotic infusion to the PICC line that I had in my arm, and she taught her everything from cleaning it to connecting it to flushing it after it's over to make sure that no blood clots in there, you know, like everything they had her do it while the nurse was like coaching her and after that you know the nurse was like you guys got this the next day she brought everything with her to do an infusion and then the next day like a courier delivered a big box on the front porch and it was everything that you needed to do an IV infusion even like the little, the little rack that you hang the IV bag on, and all the supplies, and I think they were sending like a week worth of the infusions at a time, so we started doing those, and the VA was, you know, wonderful.

Rachael Auyer  22:37

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  22:37

the only, and this is the advice that I wanted to throw out there.

Rachael Auyer  22:41

Yeah, please do. 

Ryan Roberts  22:42

The only advice, and you know, we'll definitely figure out how to get this information out there, because I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna read the phone number.

Rachael Auyer  22:52

No, we'll put it in the description box.

Ryan Roberts  22:54

There is a VA emergency, it's called a 72 hour VA emergency contact line, if, if you ever have to go to an emergency room, or you're in an accident, and you end up at any, any hospital, really, anywhere other than the VA, within 72 hours, you have to contact the VA, and what that does is starts like the health care coverage part of it. Yeah, and at that point I guess the VA communicates with the hospital, and you know, to figure out, like, what net next steps are, as well as even more importantly, paying the bill.

Rachael Auyer  23:35

Yeah, the reimbursement,

Ryan Roberts  23:36

because once I, once I got out of the hospital, I don't know the exact figure, but it was over a million dollars, was that was the hospital bill,

Rachael Auyer  23:47

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  23:47

for all the surgeries and medications and tests and everything. So then my goal, I was like, well, I've got to, I got to get the VA to pay this,

Rachael Auyer  23:56

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  23:57

or negotiate it down and then pay whatever they negotiated it to, so that was that was quite a struggle, that was really the only struggle, and it was because I didn't know that you had to call that 72 hour notification line to start that process, so I had to backtrack, and even though they started it when I called, they were like, you know, we don't have any records of anything that happened? I gave them all the information, and then they started sending the hospital, and all the doctors started sending the VA the bills, and then I would get, I think, one time I got like 30 or 35 letters, and on the same day in the mailbox, and every single one of them says it was basically a denial, like we're not, we're not going to pay this, because it wasn't, because I didn't contact them, so I got, I talked to, actually I reached out to Doug Collins' office,

Rachael Auyer  24:55

oh yeah,

Ryan Roberts  24:56

who's actually now head of the VA, yeah,

Rachael Auyer  24:57

yeah, secretary.

Ryan Roberts  24:58

used to be you local, Congressman. 

Rachael Auyer  25:01

Yeah, District Nine.

Ryan Roberts  25:02

I reached out to his office. They called me immediately, explained what was going on. They asked me to send, send them an email, kind of describing everything.

Rachael Auyer  25:12

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  25:13

and they said, you know, we'll Doug Collins, he'll do what he's got to do, or call whoever, and hopefully you know, fix, fix the situation, and they sent me a letter in the mail as well, signed by him, you know, saying essentially we're on it.

Rachael Auyer  25:33

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  25:34

so that took a little bit of time, but eventually they did figure out the financial side of it between the VA and the, you know, the private health care, but for any veteran, I would say put that number in your phone, give it to your wife, give it to your someone, so that if anything ever happens and someone other than the veteran can call, but once you make that call, the clock starts, and then you are automatically covered by your VA health benefits from that civilian health care.

Rachael Auyer  26:07

Yes, I think that's such an important point, is the communication between the VA and then the private company, and that's something we've experienced, and not everybody knows about the community provider and the website, which will also link, is that you can find people that are approved by the VA in the instance that you cannot use the VA, or the VA is too far, or they don't have that specialty, and so there are other ways to navigate your healthcare. You don't have to always go to the VA, but there are some times that you've had to go to the VA, and I didn't know if you wanted to talk about that, of scheduling those appointments, ensuring because once you get a prosthesis, I know most of our listeners are using a prosthesis or an orthosis, you typically use it for the rest of your life, so you're going to navigate this for the rest of your life, so you've created kind of a system, and how you navigate with the VA, I didn't know if you wanted to share how you've done it, and what you've been able to accomplish through communication.

Ryan Roberts  27:05

I consider myself lucky that this happened during Covid, because that made it really easy for me, because no hospital, including the VA, wanted doctor's offices, like no unnecessary

Rachael Auyer  27:18

appointment

Ryan Roberts  27:19

visits, which is like unnecessary exposure to this thing that's going on, so the VA has Community Care, which is their department that links veterans with civilian

Rachael Auyer  27:32

practices or providers,

Ryan Roberts  27:33

and I think COVID made it easier for me, because it was almost like an automatic, I didn't have to even ask, they just said okay, instead of no, I'm sorry, I think I did.

Rachael Auyer  27:44

You did,

Ryan Roberts  27:45

I did call, and I was having a conversation with someone, and I mentioned, hey, I've already, I've chosen a civilian

Rachael Auyer  27:53

leg guy, yeah,

Ryan Roberts  27:54

leg guy, and I would like to use them, they're close by the VA hospital is an hour on a good day one way for me to get down there, so community care, they made that happen,

Rachael Auyer  28:08

right?

Ryan Roberts  28:09

Community Care also lined me up with in-home physical therapy for a while, and then I reached a point where I wanted to get out of the house, and they were able to line me up with an outside physical therapist that was very close, that just happened to be open during Covid, because there were a lot that weren't, so they, they set everything up, and I remember going back to the orthopedic, and I didn't know how to gage it, but I didn't think I was doing that great, and the orthopedic doctor says, okay, let's take the staples out of the incision where my amputation was, and I'm thinking it seems way too, way too soon, but it wasn't. And Jason showed up to that appointment, and he was there during that appointment, and Dr. Serna looked over at Jason and said, "All right, you can fit him for a prosthetic, and I'm thinking, "What? No, no way. Like, this is way too soon, but it wasn't. I think the next week went into Alliance, and yeah, it was probably the Gainesville office.

Rachael Auyer  29:10

Yeah, we had to close a lot of our days because during Covid we had shortened staff. It was a challenge, but we were essential. You were one of the patients that we thought of, of if we closed our doors, this person wouldn't be able to ambulate, wouldn't be able to get around, so we're going to stay open and figure out a way to stay open.

Ryan Roberts  29:29

Well, thank you.

Rachael Auyer  29:30

Yeah, absolutely. No, thank you. Because not everybody wanted to come during Covid, so we appreciate the fact that you trusted us with your care. But you came in, and

Ryan Roberts  29:38

yeah, Jason fitted me. I think, at that time the first one we did was like the cast, so called cat casting.

Rachael Auyer  29:46

Yep, he, he probably did a scan, and I can't remember if he used the direct socket technology.

Ryan Roberts  29:53

Actually, no, I know it wasn't direct socket, because I remember when that started.

Rachael Auyer  29:58

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  29:58

so it was a little before. That yes, he did it with the scan with the with the tablet, and

Rachael Auyer  30:05

back in the old days when we just used the tablet, and

Ryan Roberts  30:10

it took not very long, I think that was like middle to the end of the week, and I was back in there early to middle of the next week, actually putting on our prosthetic leg for the first time, and grabbing the bars, and being able to take, take steps for the first time. So that was obviously a great, great feeling.

Rachael Auyer  30:31

No, absolutely. I know we've kind of navigated from lots of surgeries to eventually getting a prosthesis to activating your VA benefits as a veteran, so earned, and so glad that you had a great experience in getting coverage. And, of course, thank you, Secretary Collins, for ensuring our veterans have access to their benefits. I didn't know if we can transition to talk about some of the setbacks you had, though. Early on, had a couple falls, not everything went as planned, but you kept moving forward. If you wanted to talk about, you got some good stories. Some, I know it's not truly war, but it probably felt like war while you were navigating becoming an Alliance patient and learning how to use your prosthesis.

Ryan Roberts  31:18

Well, I think the good thing is I didn't really know what to expect, and I didn't know, I didn't know, you know, what good progress was, or the opposite, because it was all, it was all new, you know, I would pepper Jason, Jason with questions like, How long should it take me before I'm walking around with no assistive device, and I think he didn't really want to answer. He maybe gave me like a maybe an average timeline, like six to eight weeks. I'm just gonna throw out that

Rachael Auyer  31:55

sounds about right.

Ryan Roberts  31:56

Six to eight weeks, and I think I just needed like a goal, like all right. Well, six to eight weeks from now I'm going to be walking on this. The biggest thing is, I didn't trust the prosthetic.

Rachael Auyer  32:08

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  32:09

I didn't trust it to, for me to be able to take a step and it hold me up. It was just a, like, a mental block. So I would, I started out walking around with the prosthetic, wearing it a little bit every day with the walker, and then I'd put the prosthetic on, and I would walk around with two crutches, then I went from two crutches to one crutch, and then I went from one crutch to a cane, and that was right about the time I started going to physical therapy, and they were trying really hard for me to, like, just throw the cane down and take a step, and it was really, really hard to, you know, I would stand up if I put the cane down, I would just have all my weight on my

Rachael Auyer  32:56

sound side.

Ryan Roberts  32:57

Yep, and this, it might be touching the ground, but it's not doing anything. I'm pretty much just standing there on one leg, because it was just hard to, it was hard to get past that mental trust of this device that is now on my leg, that's made of, like, you know, carbon fiber, fiberglass, metal, rubber,

Rachael Auyer  33:17

that it's gonna hold. Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  33:19

but eventually I would spend more and more time in the, in the prosthesis. I would also stand up and, and like, try to walk, like I was. It was almost like my, uh, my own therapy that I would do every day. And then all of a sudden, you know, one day I'm in the basement, it's all it's carpet, there's really not a lot. There's nothing dangerous. There's a bed, so I would like kind of walk when I first truly like made the effort to like I'm taking steps without anything. I was walking like pretty close to the bed, knowing that like if I fall, I'm just going to be carpet or a mattress, and I was able to do it, and I immediately set my phone up on the bookshelf, and like, walked. Once I started doing that, my goal was to walk for my, my gait and my steps to be as normal as possible.

Rachael Auyer  34:12

Yep,

Ryan Roberts  34:13

which is another big, another big struggle, especially. I can only speak for myself, but when I had a lot of the surgeries on my upper thigh, where my femur was broken, they did several other surgeries, and every time, because, because I had an infection up here too. Luckily, you know, I lucked out, this healed that down there didn't, but if, if this didn't heal, I would have been above the knee amputee,

Rachael Auyer  34:41

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  34:41

but there was a lot of, you know, tissue and muscle that was removed from my thigh, so I don't have as much strength, I'd say maybe half to three quarters the amount of strength that I have in my, in my still intact leg, so if it was, it was difficult for me to. To easily just lift up the prosthetic and take a step, so that was my next, that was my next goal, after trusting it and being able to walk with no device, was to try to walk as normal as possible, like a normal, you know, roll over, roll your heel over step, and not as much kind of like a really bad limp, which is what I would say for almost everybody. It starts out when you start walking. There's no way to not have a little bit of a limp, or you know, you're walking, but maybe you're not putting, you're not extending your foot out because you're still trying to build that trust, you're not lifting your leg up high enough and putting your foot down, because you still, although you're walking, I don't know if I want to trust it that much, so that that's something that evolves over time as you do it, and you know, physical therapy, and just actually just getting up and, and walking, you know, they would tell me to, you know, look in the mirror, like walking, walk in front of a mirror, record yourself, and see, like what's different about your step on your prosthesis, and your, and your regular step. That's definitely just a learning.

Rachael Auyer  36:15

I know we were talking about that at the top before we jumped on, and I thought one thing that you pointed out, is truthfully, you've only fallen maybe five times, potentially. If even that,

Ryan Roberts  36:26

I think it's less. I think it's less than five times three, maybe four, in what is now like over six years, right? That was one of the things that I had a fear of, is not trusting a prosthetic, it failing or me not doing something right, and falling, and I fell pretty early on, but that was way before the prosthetic. I know that Jason told Jenny one time.

Rachael Auyer  36:55

This is a funny story.

Ryan Roberts  36:57

It's like, I know you're, you know, I know you're worried about falling, like, yeah. So Jason told Jenny to take me for a walk out in the yard and push me down in the grass.

Rachael Auyer  37:08

Not everyone do this. Make sure that you're not 80 and you're very healthy, and we want to make sure Jenny doesn't get any bad shame on the podcast. She never did it. She never pushed him down. 

Ryan Roberts  37:19

Nope, she never did it. I didn't need her help falling the day after we, I got discharged from the hospital. I was probably, I mean, I wasn't used to the walker. I mean, I, I used a walker a little bit around the halls at the hospital.

Rachael Auyer  37:33

Yep,

Ryan Roberts  37:33

but that's on like a smooth, you know, smooth floor, wide hallways, and

Rachael Auyer  37:39

and you didn't have a prosthesis, you're navigating on one leg.

Ryan Roberts  37:42

Yep, so I just had had the protective device over my leg, everything still bandaged up, and I just hopped up on the walker and took a few, I guess they were hops at that point, and our small dog kind of, he wasn't quite sure about the walker. I'm not sure exactly. I think it was him trying to run by, and there not being enough room, and he kind of scooted around, so I pulled the walker back to give him space, and the next thing you know, I lose my balance backwards and land on my back onto a really inexpensive, cheaply made bookshelf. Luckily,

Rachael Auyer  38:24

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  38:24

and it just crumbled to the ground. I'm laying there, Jenny walks in, and all of this has already been a very emotional experience, and one of the most important things we knew, unlike when you're healed up and you're wearing a prosthetic, and you have to trust that you know you might fall. The one thing that we were told is don't fall on your newly amputated leg, because you can damp. You know, there's a lot of things that can happen. So, the day after I got out of the hospital, I fell. Jenny jokes that when I'm laying on the ground, she comes around the corner, and the first thing I say is, I didn't hit my leg, like I had my, you know, amputated leg, like raised up. I mean, I hurt like all kinds of other things, but I was like, I didn't hurt my leg.

Rachael Auyer  39:14

I did the one thing I didn't want to do. 

Ryan Roberts  39:15

Well she helps me get up, and my back is bleeding. It probably wasn't an ideal time to fall. I probably should have waited a few more days.

Rachael Auyer  39:24

Yeah, 

Ryan Roberts  39:24

but it was pretty early on, just to, you know, take a fall like that, and next thing you know, like I'm bleeding from like a new place, and you know, I had all these other injuries that were healed up, and now I'm injured again,

Rachael Auyer  39:39

right?

Ryan Roberts  39:39

So it was pretty.. that was a pretty emotional time, but we, uh, it wasn't long after that I had one other fall. I was laying in the bed, heard a very, very strange noise outside, and it woke me up, and I reach over and I grab my pistol, and I hop out of the bed, because. I'm gonna just walk around the side door and try to figure out what this noise was.

Rachael Auyer  40:04

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  40:05

soon as I hopped out of the bed, obviously I hit the ground because it didn't even register that I was missing part of my leg. So I literally just took one step and then went to take the next step, and just I didn't injure my, my limb that time either I kind of fell like on my side, and I knew that, like, was the most important thing to protect, so kind of fell on my side at that point. It was, you know, whatever it is, I'm gonna have to take care of it in here, because I'm not going, obviously I'm not going out there to investigate. It turned out to be our cat digging like digging through the litter box, which was above our head, which did not sound like a cat in a litter box. It sounded like someone scraping the siding off of the house.

Rachael Auyer  40:55

I think the part that is so interesting is that you went from having these falls to having to really begin to change your mind that you're going to trust a prosthesis, so that that's playing in the background for our listeners, they may not know your big goal was to ride your motorcycle again, and Ryan showed up on his motorcycle today, I think that's what you ride almost all the time, and

Ryan Roberts  41:18

when I can, I need the truck a lot for

Rachael Auyer  41:22

your real job and things like that, but how did you move from fear of falling to walking to beginning to not use an assisted device to I'm gonna ride a motorcycle? What was that process?

Ryan Roberts  41:36

Mentally, it was hard for me to go from don't fall, you'll hurt your limb to trust this, it's okay to fall.

Rachael Auyer  41:46

Yep,

Ryan Roberts  41:47

eventually I was able to. As far as the motorcycle goes, that was that was non, like a non-negotiable.

Rachael Auyer  41:54

I know,

Ryan Roberts  41:55

even when I was laying in the hospital bed, I was like, hey, soon as I get out of here, I know the other motorcycles, total, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna find one. A friend of my dad's, who had a three wheel Harley Davidson, wanted to sell his, and I actually, I joked with, with everyone, like, hey, I'll just, I'll just get that if he'll sell it

Rachael Auyer  42:18

right.

Ryan Roberts  42:18

Well, he got, we got to the point where my phone rang one day, and he called, and he said, 'Hey, you want this, you want to buy this trike from me, because I know you want to ride again, and he, he went up to the dealer and got them to give him like a trade-in value, which is obviously always a lot less than what it's worth, and he came back, called me, and said I'll sell it to you for what they just offered me to trade it in, which was a great, great deal. So it was probably the following week I rented a big U-Haul trailer, and me and a buddy went to South Carolina and picked up the trike and rode that for a while, rode it. I rode it a lot. I think I probably rode 1212, 14,000 miles, and right around a year, like a little over a year. Rode it out to Austin, Texas, and back. Really enjoyed it, but the whole time I'm riding, and I'm thinking, I want, like, this is not. it's fulfilling, but it's not fulfilling my, my need, because I'm on a three wheel motorcycle instead of a two wheel motorcycle.

Rachael Auyer  43:28

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  43:29

so I talked to Jenny, who always is supportive, even if I have the most off the wall crazy idea, she's supportive. So I bought an old used Harley Davidson Fat Boy, and the reason I bought it, specifically the reason I bought it, is because it had floor boards, because I knew I needed something to rest my prosthetic foot on, other than, like, a, you know, like a foot peg, and then I also, the only other thing that I needed to be able to ride a two-wheel motorcycle is a heel toe shifter.

Rachael Auyer  44:03

Yep,

Ryan Roberts  44:03

push the backside to up shift, front side to downshift, like adjust it a little bit. And so I bought this motorcycle as kind of like a learning tool. It was, you know, not real big, not heavy, but not as heavy as a lot of, a lot of bigger, like the one I've got now, and I wrote it for my first ride, was like up to the gas station back, and that was way too easy, and I took a couple of short trips, like day trips with some of the guys. We went down to South Georgia and back, and I think I only had that, I don't even think I had the tag from the DMV or from the tag office for the motorcycle yet, and I will, and I was already thinking, okay, now I'm going to get rid of that, and I'm going to get a motorcycle very similar to what I had before, and it wasn't long, I took that, what I'd call like the temporary track. Training motorcycle up, traded it in, bought a full-size, really heavy motorcycle.

Rachael Auyer  45:06

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  45:07

very similar to the one that, uh, that was totaled during our accident.

Rachael Auyer  45:11

What are you driving now?

Ryan Roberts  45:12

2021 Harley Road Glide Special.

Rachael Auyer  45:16

And I know for our listeners, they might not know how important the water is for you and different things with work. Why don't you talk about once you got back to riding your motorcycle? I think it was kind of parallel that you wanted to get back to work, working a full-time job again, and then being with your family in the water on the boat in the sand. We were just talking about how he brings in his water leg and Jason has to clean it all out because he's very active.

Ryan Roberts  45:44

Yeah, there's always a lot of sand and beat sand and stuff in that, in that leg. When I take it to him, I think the motorcycle thing was my first hurdle at the time. We did have a boat that we had had for a few years at the lake, and it was, it was at a marina in a covered slip, just parked there. I remember before I was up and around calling a buddy of mine who does pressure washing, and he used to do like boat detailing, car detailing. He didn't even do that anymore. Now he was just pressure washing, but I reached out to him and said, "Hey, is there any way, because he knew what was going on? Is there any way you can go clean my boat? I know you're probably too busy doing your other stuff, that's why you stopped doing boat detailing. And he said, "Absolutely. And he went up and cleaned up the boat for us. That was another, not quite as important as a motorcycle, but that was another thing that we did with a lot of family and a lot of friends was the lake and the boat, and I knew that there's no way that I can do the lake and the boat without being able to swim, especially when it's really hot, you have to, you have to be in the water or in AC, or else you know you're just sitting out there melting, so that was a big motivator to, to get a water leg. We, you know, do multiple trips to the beach every year, and one of the, one of the greatest feelings was when I did get the water leg from Jason. The next time we went to the beach, I remember going, going out to the surf, and just saying, you know what, I'm like, I'm going all the way out there, I'm like, I'm gonna swim or hop or tread water or whatever, but I'm going out in the, in the water, and that, that was a great feeling, know that, knowing that I could, you know, kind of, because even small waves, you try to walk into the surf or out of the surf, I mean, they'll not, I see people get knocked down all the time, so

Rachael Auyer  47:51

absolutely,

Ryan Roberts  47:52

so being able to fight through that, that I think that was another like check box for me, like, hey, I can, and I knew if I can swim if I can manage to go out in the ocean. I can swim in a pool or or anywhere else. So that that was important. It felt like it was a necessity for me to be able to continue to, you know, spend time with the family and the kids in the same environment, instead of everyone runs out and gets in the ocean, and I'm sitting in the chair because my prosthetic foot can't get wet,

Rachael Auyer  48:27

right.

Ryan Roberts  48:28

So that, that was that was a blessing that the VA also, you know, took care of.

Rachael Auyer  48:33

I know that was so important. And then the style of foot that you needed for your job and navigating different terrain, and how you, you are a researcher, I think. I think you brought the foot to Jason and said, "Hey, I want this foot". And yeah, talking about why getting back to work mattered to you and being excellent at your job.

Ryan Roberts  48:54

I wasn't extremely focused on going back to work early on. It took a little while, and then all of a sudden my phone rings, and because really everyone that knew me, like in the real estate community, knew what was going on, so you know they were temporarily closed until further notice,

Rachael Auyer  49:13

right,

Ryan Roberts  49:14

and then I got a call from a past client that I had done an inspection for several years before, and they needed another inspection on another house, and I remember thinking, first of all, is this something? Can I do this? Where are all my tools, and how is this going to go doing an inspection now that I have a prosthetic? You know, is it going to take me instead of two or three hours? Is it going to take me eight hours, because I'm not walking around as well, but I wanted to do it as, as a test, like a test run. So this is the new thing that I have in my life. Can I go and do this? And I went and did that inspection, and as soon as I got done, I said to myself, that, and to Jenny, you know, I can do this.

Rachael Auyer  49:59

Mm.

Ryan Roberts  50:00

Like it really wasn't, it really wasn't as big of a challenge as I thought it was going to be.

Rachael Auyer  50:04

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  50:05

so I immediately, I kind of very, very slowly ease back into it. It was kind of if people called and needed an inspection, I'd usually try to do it. I had a lot, lot of doctors' appointments and prosthetic appointments and stuff like that early on.

Rachael Auyer  50:20

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  50:20

so it took a while, and I kind of just did like one here, and then maybe one there a couple weeks later, and but I was more focused on walking and therapy and

Rachael Auyer  50:33

regaining your activities of daily living.

Ryan Roberts  50:35

Yep, absolutely, I was. I was working out with dumbbells because they were handy and easy, and I didn't really have, I didn't have to go to the gym,

Rachael Auyer  50:43

right,

Ryan Roberts  50:44

but just trying to, you know, after sitting in a hospital for so long, you're not doing anything, and then even when you come home, you can get around on a walker, which I'm sure is maybe great for your triceps, and that's probably about it, so just like working out, getting my strength back and being able to walk as good as possible was my number one goal. One thing that I talked to Jason about, because we had never talked about going back to work,

Rachael Auyer  51:10

right?

Ryan Roberts  51:11

I didn't know if, if I would ever, you know, start my business back up and go back to work after doing a couple of inspections, and or knowing that this is something that I'm going to continue to do, it may not be at the level that I was doing it before, but it's something that I'm going to do for income,

Rachael Auyer  51:30

right,

Ryan Roberts  51:30

and I enjoy, enjoy doing it, so I talked to Jason about, because not really something that we had ever talked about, or something that I had even thought about, but like all the terrain that I have to walk,

Rachael Auyer  51:43

right,

Ryan Roberts  51:44

going around a house and doing an inspection, and then navigating, you know, stairs to get in the house, and then stairs up and down to a basement, and then stairs like a ladder, like an attic ladder, up and down, and I did a little research, like you said. Found, I don't remember if it was one option. I think Jason had a couple of options.

Rachael Auyer  52:06

Of course,

Ryan Roberts  52:07

we settled on the one that we both thought was the most, like, robust foot, as far as ankle movement. So it moved, it moved in all, you know, every every direction. It would give you know if I was walking side, you know, along a hill, sideways, either way, being able to walk down a hill, back up a hill. So the VA covered the expense of that foot, and Jason got it, and it was, it was great. And I think I used that one for about three, maybe almost four years.

Rachael Auyer  52:41

Yeah, you did all the miles that it was supposed to, 

Ryan Roberts  52:44

and when I went out, and I never had no issues, it always worked great. And when I mentioned to Jason about a different foot, he knew which foot I had now, and I think that's when I learned how fast-paced, like the technology is in the prosthetic field.

Rachael Auyer  53:03

Yes,

Ryan Roberts  53:03

because he told me he was like, they don't even make this foot anymore. He's like, they got a newer version, which doesn't look anything like the other one, and it's lighter. Here's a few other options, of course. I had some options on my phone from some research that I had done, and conversations that people have on Facebook support groups talking about different foots and the activities that they are involved in, so we ordered a new foot, and it was, you know, I tried out, he got one, and I tried it for 2-3, weeks,

Rachael Auyer  53:36

yeah, pretty typical.

Ryan Roberts  53:38

loved it, and there was one other that we were going to try, and I went back to the office. He took the other foot off that I'd been wearing, trying out for a few weeks, and put the other one on, and I think I took like three steps, and I just went back, and I was like, "Just take it, just take that one off, that's the one, you know, the other one, the one that I had been wearing, kind of had a desire to get back into golf as well, and everyone's seen a golf course, there's nothing flat, there's very few flat places on a golf course, other than maybe the tee box, everything else is hills, steep grades, sand, so knowing that I needed, if that's something that I'm going to do, I need the foot to be able to do it on, so when I did the trial for the, for the actually the one I've got currently, I went out and played golf just to see how it went, and it was great.

Rachael Auyer  54:36

No, I think you're highlighting something that's so important for patients to hear, is that when you select a prosthetist, you need to find somebody who will collaborate with you, because everybody has different desires, different goals, and you did, you went through our Goal Digger program and became our Goal Digger of the year for 2020. It was the smallest one we've ever had, it was in our, 

Ryan Roberts  54:58

the Covid one?

Rachael Auyer  54:59

the Covid. One, where's a surprise Goal Digger event at our mutual friend's home, and got to celebrate all the achievement that happened, and then you know you've continued to achieve your goals, but you come in with, hey, I want to try this, or I'm looking for a foot, and these are my ideas. What are your ideas? And then finding a prosthetist that will order them and work with vendors and say, can he try it, can he see how this works in his everyday life. Because the part that I think patients might not know is that you have agency, you need to advocate for yourself. I know you've done that through the VA, I know you've done that here at our clinic. If you could make a recommendation for patients, how do you make sure you find great partners, or what are you doing to ensure you're getting what you need?

Ryan Roberts  55:47

I'd say a prosthetist or a prosthetic company that is going to listen to what your needs are and what your goals are. That's something you guys have always done, like with the Goal Digger program, is let's let people set goals, and it's a, it's a win for that person when they reach their goals, and it's a win for you guys when they reach their goals, because that means that you have done what your goal was, which is to help them reach their goal, and the only way you can do that effectively is to listen to what the patient wants and needs, knowing what their goals are, and then knowing what device and care that they need to be able to accomplish it.

Rachael Auyer  56:35

No, absolutely. And I know what the VA, Jason lovingly says, that you, your spiritual gift is perseverance, so sometimes it's hard to navigate, even if you have traditional insurance. This is something very normal that you have to keep calling. How do you engage with the VA, or with other companies? And I know even in your professional world, you probably have dealt with this, where you just have to keep calling. What would you recommend a patient kind of do, or how have you navigated that?

Ryan Roberts  57:05

I would say, as a, as a VA patient, any veteran that has ever called the VA knows that they don't immediately just pick the phone up and say, 'Hey, how can I help you? You know, there's a phone system where you have to kind of know what options to choose. There's lots of extensions. It's a bit, you know, the VA

Rachael Auyer  57:27

is a big organization, is

Ryan Roberts  57:28

a busy, it's a big organization, and is very, very busy. So you're not always going to catch someone that answers the phone and can help you when you call. You're not always going to leave a voicemail and somebody immediately calls you back,

Rachael Auyer  57:42

right.

Ryan Roberts  57:43

So you have to be almost stubborn about it, and realize that you know if I give up, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get what I need.

Rachael Auyer  57:54

Yeah,

Ryan Roberts  57:54

so you know my success was probably calling every every extension li leaving a voicemail on everyone's voicemail, that it's like a maze of a phone system, so whoever's voicemail it was, whether that was even the person that I was trying to talk to, or I've ever even heard of who they are, or even what they do, I'm leaving voicemails, and eventually always joke that I called so much that finally even someone who maybe didn't have the time or didn't even couldn't even solve my problem would just get tired of me like calling so often, and they would, and they would answer, but once I talked to them, me immediate appointment set, and for me, since I'm being cared for by a civilian company, my calls are really more of their approval.

Rachael Auyer  58:51

Yes,

Ryan Roberts  58:51

since they're not the ones that are actually doing the work, they're just the ones that are paying for the equipment and service. So,

Rachael Auyer  59:00

I think that's an important point for patients, especially if you are engaging with the VA, is that you have to be an approved vendor of the VA. So, there was a part that our company had to go through and make sure that we were within the realm of what they've asked for, and our team has to do very similar. You have to call, so if you choose a prosthetic company or an orthotic company that's outside of that, this is not going to be your story. So make sure that all of the people, and kind of like we talked about with the emergency line, the communication is so key, and once you get someone on the phone, ensuring you have every documentation that you need, and I know that you've had to see physicians with the VA to approve prosthetic care in certain scenarios, and your flexibility with that. There is a process you have to follow the process in place, but don't give up, because at the end of it you get what you need, and so keep going. I think that would be what I've heard this entire time we've. Talked, is you got to keep setting goals, you got to keep seeing what's next, and that's what you've done, and I'll put it on here, because you told us in the beginning, and I'm going to let Jason know, is you're even now considering running, which is awesome, I know he's he's giving a smirk, but now that you, if you tell me something, I'm going to be like, hey, we're going to make it happen, Ryan, of course, so we'll see what happens. Ryan, is there anything else that you're looking forward to, or something that you would say drives you to continue to want to persevere as a person living with limb loss?

Ryan Roberts  1:00:33

What motivates me the most is being able to do everyday activities as good, or maybe even better than someone that doesn't have limb loss, and I think that kind of it motivates me, because when people do see me, it's funny when I'm riding the motorcycle, my pants leg like kind of like it is now, we'll go up and you can, you can clearly see that that's not a normal foot, and a lot of times, even if I'm not paying attention, if Jenny's riding the motorcycle with me, she'll tell me, you know, some guy just rode by, and he was, he saw your leg, and he was giving you like a, like a thumbs up. Same thing on on a golf course, you know, if I, if I go out there, as long as it's not winter time, I'm wearing shorts. Everyone sees a prosthetic leg. I'm no PGA golfer, but I would - I want to go out there and play pretty good, so that you know that motivates me to be better, knowing that they're very well have there could have been a scenario where I wouldn't even be able to be here,

Rachael Auyer  1:01:43

yeah,

Ryan Roberts  1:01:44

or I wouldn't even, you know, be able to walk out from the parking lot to a golf course, much less go play 18 holes or ever ride a two wheel motorcycle again. So I just kind of use all those kind of things as motor as motivation to accomplish whatever sometimes wild and crazy thought you know just to do it for for me and knowing that no matter what somebody else is going through they're going to see me doing that and they may have some physical issue that you can't see but it's potentially holding them back, you know. Maybe every now and then I motivate someone else to, to push through and do, do what they want to do.

Rachael Auyer  1:02:30

No, I appreciate you sharing that. I know your family and your friends, and I'm sure the Leathernecks are all so proud of you, and the part that I want to encourage listeners, and he does have awesome social media posts and things. If you ever wanted to connect with Ryan, Ryan is very generous with sharing his experiences and encouraging others. As he talked about how he had someone come in in his hospital room and walked in, Ryan will walk into your room too and share how you can become an overcomer and continue to move forward with strength and hope. I want to thank Ryan and all of our veterans who have served our country so well. Thank you for saying yes to that call, so we all could have freedom. So people like Jason and I could open a business in a free country, and it's a gift that we get to live here, and in light of, you know, 250 years that our country has survived. I just want to say a special thank you to you. Thank you for being one of our only patients in 2020 I really do appreciate you trusting us and coming to a banquet with a handful of people in the middle of Covid to celebrate life, and every time Ryan walks in the room. I think, gosh, nothing is a mystery. God, God has a plan. And so, if you are interested in learning more about how to become a patient of Alliance, or you need to find a clinic, or you're struggling with figuring out how to find someone who works with the VA, call our office, reach out to Ryan. We will connect everybody in the description box. But thank you for coming on today, Ryan, and sharing your story.

Ryan Roberts  1:04:03

Thank you, Rachael. You guys are awesome. I appreciate you having me here.

Rachael Auyer  1:04:08

Were you inspired or challenged today? If so, connect with us. Follow the links in the description box below. We want to hear from you. Until next time, thanks for listening to the Alliance Goal Digger Podcast.