Paul Graham
81 Howard Hill Rd
Foster, RI  02825
Teacher, coach, athlete, below-the-knee amputee
Crackerg13@aol.com

I have been involved in sports since I was a kid, playing in youth leagues and on school teams as far back as I can remember.  When I was 17, I was on the high school track team and started experiencing pain in my ankle.  After several misdiagnoses, I was finally diagnosed with cancer.  The course of treatment my doctors recommended was amputation, radiation, and chemotherapy.  For a 17-year-old athlete, it was just devastating.  I was willing to do the radiation and chemo, but I didn’t want to lose my leg.  My doctors, however, convinced me that amputation was the only way to beat the disease.  After the amputation below the knee, I underwent radiation, struggled through chemo over the next few years, and finally beat the cancer. 

I started out with another prosthetic company, and that went OK.  I was able to do a fair number of things, but that company’s focus was on just getting people to walk again. I wanted much more than that – walking was the minimum.  When I met Mike, I knew that this would be a different experience.  He listened to what I wanted to do and made my goals his goals.

I am now a middle school teacher, and I coach soccer, cross-country, track, and basketball.  In the summer, I have my own part-time construction company.  Mike has been a big part of all of this.  He’s optimistic and very encouraging, though he always sets my expectations realistically.  For me, this whole experience has been about getting back to doing the things I love.  I coach the kids, I play basketball with them, and I don’t worry, and I don’t need someone else do things for me.  I can do what I want to do.  That’s made all the difference in my life.

Mike keeps up-to-date on technological advances and introduces me to new products when he feels I can benefit.  For example, the liner of my prosthesis was causing me a lot of skin breakdown, which was very uncomfortable.  A new tech liner came out, Mike tried it on my leg, and it worked great.  That liner made it possible for me to do a century bike ride, something that I would never have been able to do with the old liner.  And Mike really listens to me, so when I learn about a product or something that might help me, he looks into it, and we decide if it’s right for me.  When I make little changes to make my prosthesis more comfortable, he takes it in stride – he looks at it as another way to get to know my needs better.

I’ve been with Nunnery for more than 10 years now, and my experience has been excellent.  Over the years, as my activity levels have changed, Mike has changed with me.  He and the staff at Nunnery are personally invested – they genuinely care and do what it takes to make things right.  One example of this happened a couple of years ago, when the foot broke off my prosthesis right in the middle of my classroom.   It was quite a surprise for my students, many of whom didn’t even know I am an amputee.  Nunnery’s response couldn’t have been better:  Becky brought a pair of crutches to me at school and took my leg back to the office.  Mike fixed it and brought it back to me at school before the day’s end.  What more could I ask for?