Trust the Process

Ask Katie Carr to tell you about herself, and she begins by jokingly introducing “Leslie,” her glittery, bright pink prosthetic leg. Continue the conversation, and Katie’s bright personality shines through to match.

“I have a very strong faith. So really, my life is around church, my children, my husband Tim, and our community and all that entails — and being as involved in each of the facets as much as possible. And that's kind of where I am right now. That's what gives me joy — and being at Shepherd. I'm often there three times a week.”

These days, Katie comes to Shepherd Center most often for outpatient physical therapy, but over the past year and a half, she’s also been a patient in the Wound Clinic, Dean Stroud Spine and Pain Institute, and Wheelchair Seating & Mobility Clinic.

In January 2024, Katie was scheduled to have a hysterectomy. But at the very start of the surgery, her vena cava, one of the largest veins in the body, got nicked, leading to significant blood loss. Katie was in a minimally conscious state for 11 days, sustained damage to multiple organs, and developed sepsis from blood clots, resulting in the need to amputate one of her legs.

“Waking up without a leg, you're very vulnerable. I had to deal with the fact that I couldn't go to the bathroom myself and deal with all of the things that are involved with this level of shock. But we started to think about what the next few months would look like, and I had heard of Shepherd — I knew what kind of place Shepherd was. And my husband and I, along with our family and friends, really wanted to go to Shepherd.… It is a gift from God that someone answered the phone and scheduled my appointment in the Wound Clinic.”

Beginning to Heal

At the Wound Clinic, Katie says the staff made her feel at home. Her case manager, Kathie Kurtz, whom Katie calls her guardian angel, noticed that the wheelchair Katie was using wasn’t a good fit, so she suggested Katie visit Shepherd’s Wheelchair Seating & Mobility Clinic, too.

As Katie healed, she got a prescription for physical therapy, but when pain made therapy difficult, Kurtz suggested Katie visit Shepherd’s Spine and Pain Institute. There, she saw Michael Smith, D.O., whom she credits with helping her discontinue the strong narcotics she was taking for pain. He unpacked each facet of what was causing her pain and tackled them individually, but with a holistic view. In addition to nerve, bladder, and wound pain from the original trauma, Dr. Smith addressed the shoulder pain that came from pushing her wheelchair and back pain from scoliosis she’d developed from sitting in her wheelchair for an extended period. He referred her to Alaina Hammond, Psy.D., ABPP-RP, a clinical psychologist at the Pain Institute, to talk through the trauma and pain she had experienced.

“He looked at it from ‘I'm seeing you, but let me find other areas within our Shepherd care team that we can add to your specific case and help you.’”

Katie felt like Dr. Smith did everything he could to put her at ease.

“He even offered to play Taylor Swift during a procedure one time because I'm obsessed with Taylor Swift. Knowing him, his personality is so stoic and very business-like, but … there's just an immediate trust and a caring, empathetic relationship on both sides.”

“My husband will tell everybody, ‘Dr. Smith is putting her together piece by piece. He's putting her back together. And this is my wife again. He's helped her get back behind the wheel and drive. He's helped her realize that she can get up in the morning, take the kids to school, and keep her leg on because she's not in severe pain from her femur rubbing into the prosthetic.’ … He's made life easier. And I wouldn't even just say easier. He's made my life better. And that's a big deal.”

Getting Back to Life

Dr. Smith and Kathie Kurtz referred Katie to Allan Peljovich, M.D., MPH, a Shepherd Center consulting orthopedic surgeon, to address phantom pain in her leg and later nerve pain in her fingers. Dr. Peljovich performed an innovative targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) surgery on Katie’s leg. In the surgery, he connected some of the nerves leading to Katie’s amputated leg to other nerves and muscles, reducing the incidence of phantom pain.

“Instead of having it 24/7, I now only have phantom pains maybe once every three days. And that's huge for an amputee.”

The surgery meant delaying when Katie could get her first prosthetic, and the extended time sitting meant she had to work hard in physical therapy to realign her hip, but with her pain managed, she made significant progress and has since returned for a second round of physical therapy — with big goals in mind.

“This second time with PT, I kind of had to make a decision,” Katie explains. “Am I going to be someone that is walking regularly again? … Am I going to be able to go upstairs and put my children to sleep? Am I going to be able to walk to the soccer field where a wheelchair can't go on the grass? … And I had to make that choice where I don't want to go home and just put it [the prosthetic] away. I want to learn to have stamina to cook for my family, and to do the laundry and put it in their drawers, and just simple things like that. And Sandy [Alexander, my PT] is helping me get there. I'm walking really well with no help, and it's been almost exactly one year with this prosthetic. I went from having a walker to the crutches to a cane, and now I don't have anything. And I'm super proud, really proud of this. And it's all because of Shepherd.”

Encouraging Others

And physical therapy isn’t all Katie has been up to this year. While Katie couldn’t return to her job as a data engineer, she and her best friend, Maureen, started a nonprofit based on one of Katie’s other loves – creating art. The nonprofit, Everyday Art, includes art workshops and an online gallery where artists who don’t have a presence in galleries can sell their work. A portion of sales goes to the nonprofit, and with that money, Katie and Maureen assemble art kits for patients at local hospitals and outpatient facilities.

“I get to spend the rest of my life, hopefully, giving people the chance to do art when they feel alone, or maybe they just need some time for themselves, or maybe it’s allowing someone struggling with limb loss to find a different way with their prosthetic to paint something, and it's still going to be beautiful,” Katie says.

She encourages others experiencing chronic pain to “trust the process.”

“It works. You can live with chronic pain and not always be in severe pain, and that's something very important to realize for somebody who is coming to a pain center for the first time,” Katie explains. “You can get that number eight or nine down to a two or a three, and that makes a huge difference. It goes from you being depressed and immobile to being happy the majority of the time and able to function.”

And as for “Leslie,” Katie’s glittery pink prosthetic, Katie sees it as an opportunity to educate people and spread hope.

“That's why I wanted it [the prosthetic] to be loud and proud. And I wanted people to knock on it and ask questions because I can also have the opportunity to talk about hope and faith — believing in miracles. And it may not always look perfect in your life, but they happen.”

Written by Ruth Underwood