There is a limb or function you know you will lose what would you have it be?

Well out of those, losing my left foot seems to be the least severe one. Sure, not being able to walk would really suck ass, but compared to the rest of those…gah.

Not hearing or seeing? Fuck that.

Losing my right arm? Fuck that. Being paralyzed from the waist down? I’d have much more of a chance to learn to walk again without a foot than I would if my legs didn’t work. And if I really couldn’t walk due to foot loss, at least I could still draw, play games, listen to music and move my legs. Sorry foot, but you’re outta here.

’‘saws it off with a rock’’ Take THAT, ten days!

Daniel Day Lewis.

where’s that situated

My Left Foot, it’ll hurt & There Will Be Blood, but hey…

All of them so they could just leave me there to die in peace!

Maybe she wanted to know where he lived…hey, don’t ask me!

All my life I’ve been terrified of losing a limb. I remember seeing a movie when I was very young in which Robert Wagner loses a leg, and another in which Tony Curtis loses a hand. I hated that. I still shy away from those kind of movies. Think I’ll pass on answering this question. ;-)

Easy. The left foot. I would walk a bit slower, no big deal.

I would choose to lose my left foot. With today’s technology, I could probably get a really decent prosthetic replacement and still carry on with very few problems. The only hang up would be that I would be discharged from the military earlier than I want to be because of something like that.

My hearing, my sight, and basically everything in the upper portion of my body is the most valuable to me as that is the most functional part of my body most of the time.

Left foot. My insurance covers prosthetics.

Honestly, that was a really easy choice. You should take that one off.

If you did, I’d say probably take paralyzation, if I can still use the bathroom on my own. If not, hearing loss, but someone needs to front me Lasik surgery so I have at least one fully functional sensory organ.

I would say left foot easily out of those choices except that I love to dance. Since you list right arm, which is my dominant hand (maybe you should have written right arm for right handed people and left for left handed, because which hand is dominant probably makes a big difference in this decision) that would be a pretty major loss. My weak hand is very weak, and just simple things like eating would be difficult, but at least mobility is not greatly affected. Hearing and sight would just suck. Gawd, it all just sucks to think about. The accident I was in back in March, my girlfriend who was with me has lost her sense of smell from it and the majority of her ability to taste. Any loss of the senses is pretty upsetting. A loss of pleasures in life, and all our senses help keep us safe.

I know many people with losses like this. The son of a friend who was paralized after an accident. My grandfather was hard of hearing. Girls I used to play with when I was little were deaf. A cousin of an exboyfriend had lost the majority of his arm in an accident. I won’t list them all, but I just mention it because I see how they move forward in life and do just fine, some of them even say they would not want to go back and change it if they could.

This is like some weird kind of Twilight Zone question.

I’d be like everyone else, the left foot. A friend had his left foot smashed twice in motor cycle accidents, it became so painful after the second reconstruction that he eventually chose to have it amputated. He was pretty much alright after that, even returned to being an excellent snow skier.

I was asked by a girlfriend, which would be worse, losing hearing or sight? I told her I am half deaf already, so I could handle that better than losing sight.

The least limiting choice is the left foot, obviously. Prostheses being what they are today, you’d be able to function normally. Choosing a sensory organ to lose, would be much harder. Sight and hearing would be the hardest to lose. I’d have to choose the sense of smell to go. That would interfere with the sense of taste, but it wouldn’t obliterate it entirely. I don’t like this question.

I love to hike and am learning to love to dance I also like yoga… and everyone else chose left foot.

I think I would choose to be blind. I could still dream, technology is coming along I could be taught to walk with a cane and learn braille but also do books on cd and type. There is also a lady who is fully blind who can crochet and knit patterns if they are read to her or memory. Not all of them are a work of art. Some of them are quite hinky but she doesn’t know that.

I’d have the opportunity to explore the world tactilly. Learn people’s voices remember where I put things.

Also I’ve seen a lot of beauty so while I would miss it having the opportunity to experience would be sweet.

Waking up in the morning and no harsh light, sweetness.

What I couldn’t do without sound. I appreciate silence. But only when it comes after great cacophony. Or in contrast to noise. I would feel a tangible disconnect. I may be able to feel music through vibration but the sublime experience of subtle harmonies and lilting or rich lyrics would be lost.

Besides I can be quite jumpy I think I would have a heart attack if people were always surprising me.

@rosehips I said left foot would be easy, except I love to dance. Meaning I don’t think I can choose my foot.

being as I am already paralyzed from the waist down, I would pick that. I might opt to get prosthetic legs so I might look a bit less like the ministry of silly walks when I toddle around.

@JLeslie true. The general consensus would have been more accurate to say.

What kind of dancing do you do?

@rosehips Now I just take a zumba class and the occassional wedding or night club. I hope to get back into ballet now that I moving to a new city. I am not a professional, not even close, I just love doing it.

It doesn’t matter if you are a professional as long as you enjoy it. At least not to me.

@majorrich so if this question were altered to “if impaired would you choose to pick a different impairment, a la Twilight Zone style, would you?”

Yeah, if I had to pick, I would have my legs gone instead of meat noodles like they are now. Because if I had prosthetics, I might have a chance to walk semi-normally. But they won’t amputate them because they aren’t damaged.

@majorrich but would it make any difference even if the did amputate them? The spinal cord is still severed so your brain wouldn’t be able to communicate with the muscles to move the prosthetic limbs. What is your injury level? My husband is C5 complete.

I would probably take the right arm. Then I would be able to perambulate without much trouble, plus I am pretty sure things would rewire and I would learn to make up for losing my dominate hand. I couldn’t pick paralysis because my husband is adamant that two wheelchairs in a family is one too many.

I am an incomplete L1 so I might be able to wiggle my hips and use my canes. Some rule the VA says they can’t remove a ‘viable limb’. Must be cheaper for them.

A little over a year ago, my son broke his Talus into six pieces. It never healed and the pain became unbearable. He chose to have his left foot removed from about 8” below the knee.
He is still the smartass he always was and is getting around much better on the prosthesis than he was when he was “whole” so I would say I would go with that.

@majorrich that is really too bad. Maybe there will be an advancement in medicine that makes it worth while to have to carry the extra weight around for so long.