Elisa Cardone
cell: 529-8355 
home: 364-2234
epcardone@aol.com
10 Spring Lane
Charlestown, RI  02813

I was nine years old when I started experiencing pain in my lower leg.  My parents took me to get checked, and a scan revealed a tumor in my leg.  Back then, cancer patients didn’t have many choices.  So my leg was amputated above the knee, I was fitted with a prosthetic, and I adapted, as kids tend to do.

Over the years, I’ve moved around quite a bit and have been to many different prosthetists.  In general, I have found they are always very busy and don’t necessarily take the time to really get to know me.  Four years ago, when I moved from New York back to Rhode Island, I was again looking.  I was hoping for someone who was easily accessible, and whom I could call at a moment’s notice if I were having problems.  I had driven by the Nunnery office several times and had seen the sign, so I thought I’d give them a try.  Nunnery felt different right away.  They really wanted to get to know me as a person, not just as a patient.

I’m a particularly challenging patient.  I have always been very active, so I have a tendency to break things. Past prosthetists have chastised me for that tendency, but Mike’s attitude is that he’ll do whatever he can so I can do the things I want to do.  Mike doesn’t take the easy route - he’s not an “off-the-shelf” kind of prosthetist.  My knee is a great example.  Mike recommended that I try a computerized knee unit, and honestly, I didn’t like it nearly as well as my old hydraulic knee.  Mike then learned about this new Rheo knee, which uses artificial intelligence and actually learns as I walk.  Only a few people in were RI using it at that point, but that didn’t stop Mike.  He went out and learned the new technology and software so he could offer it to me and his other patients. We’re still in the process of fine-tuning, but it’s working well for me, and I appreciate the extra mile Mike was willing to go.

While my leg’s function is my top priority, cosmetics are also important to me.  My past prosthetists didn’t share my concern with cosmesis – I just had to live with what they gave me.  Mike, on the other hand, is very willing to work with me in that area, and he respects my wishes.

I now have two young sons who keep me very busy, and I enjoy hiking, biking, and walking.  I’m also interested in maybe running.  I am just as busy and mobile as any other person.  While Nunnery has helped make all of that possible, they have done more than just take care of my leg.  They have put me in contact with a network of amputees, which helps us all feel connected and supported, and they encouraged me to form a women’s amputee resource group.  Nunnery supported an Amputee Bill of Rights in the state legislature and mobilized patients to speak at the State House in support of it.  Nunnery has really made me feel like I’m part of this bigger network of people, which is very empowering.  This is not your typical doctor-patient relationship – I feel like they’re friends.  I would never go anywhere else.