Chelaine McInroy, 23, waited less than a month before getting back in the saddle after her leg was amputated due to a severe infection.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

ARMSTRONG - After a fluke infection left doctors with no choice but to amputate her leg, the question for Armstrong athlete Chelaine McInroy wasn't how long it would take for her to walk, but how long before she could ride. 

The answer? Not as long as you might think. Just a few weeks after the surprise surgery — not even fitted with a prosthetic leg yet and still working on her balance — McInroy was back in the saddle. 

“Horses are the one thing that haven’t really changed in my life. As soon as I’m on the horse, it’s like nothing ever happened, I didn’t lose my leg. I’m just as fast as everyone else, if not faster than everyone else. As soon as I get on that horse, it doesn’t slow me down at all,” McInroy says.

A member of Canada’s para-alpine ski team up until January 2016 (she was born with spina bifida and had four spinal surgeries by the age of 16), McInroy has always led an active life. Barrel racing, playing softball, skiing and swing dancing are just some of the many passions she is reintegrating into her life after a small cut on her foot grew into a potentially fatal infection.

COULD HAVE DIED

During a family trip to Mexico in January 2015, McInroy cut her heel dancing barefoot.

“I could cover it with a bandaid,” she says. “It wasn’t anything. I never, ever, in a million years thought it would turn into what it did.”

The cut refused to heal, and once back in Canada, McInroy was put on antibiotics. Months went by and it only got worse. She continued to train and compete with the para-alpine team, even travelling to Austria and Colorado.

“I was dealing with it on the road with our team doctors,” McInroy says.

In April of 2016, she collapsed with a fever. The infection had gotten into the bone.

“It went into my bloodstream and went septic. It could have been fatal,” she says.

Chelaine McInroy, riding 'Bud'.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Over the next couple of months, doctors “tossed around the word 'amputate' as if it was worst-case scenario, last resort.”

“June hit and all of a sudden it was coming off,” she says.

While a shock, McInroy says the surgery was actually a positive turning point.

“As soon as I woke up from the surgery, I couldn’t believe how good I felt. It was the first time in a year-and-a-half I didn’t have an infection running through me. I was excited to get my life back,” she says.

TAKING IT IN STRIDE

The surgery may have meant losing her leg, but it also meant getting back on her feet — something she did a little quicker than her doctors might have liked. Less than ten hours after the surgery, she was already standing beside her hospital bed. Ten days later — with staples still freshly sewn into her leg — she went to Lumby Days. Within three weeks of the surgery, she went to cheer on her friends at Funtastic, and ended up playing on one leg.

“I even got a few people out,” she says.

That night also marked her first time back on the dance floor with her boyfriend.

“He took my weight and we were just going to sway, and then we thought ‘why not’ and started doing flips and spins,” she says.

Later on in the summer she also landed a part in a teen vampire movie, Drink Slay Love, which filmed in the Vernon area.

Chelaine McInroy with her everyday walking prosthesis. It doesn't provide much flex and doesn't perform well on uneven terrain, which is why she needs to get a specialized sports prosthesis.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Her days and weeks are filled with physiotherapy and doctor’s appointments, but she says horseback riding has played one of the biggest roles in her recovery. She remembers her first ride after the surgery, and says her biggest fear wasn’t getting hurt, but finding out if she could still do it with only one leg.

“It was more more mentally for me, not that the horse was going to do anything, but ‘can I do this? Am I losing this part of my life too?’ It was not knowing. After the first five minutes on the horse, it wasn’t really anything I was worried about,” she says.

Her first rides after the surgery were without a prosthesis, but she has since been fitted with a titanium leg. The weight makes her feel more balanced in the saddle, but she says it took a little while for the horses to get used to the ‘big, heavy thumping thing against their sides.’ Because she can’t apply pressure with the prosthesis, she guides her horse with vocal commands and uses different aids, such as a riding crop, to put pressure on them. 

The best part about riding, she says, is that horses, unlike people, show no judgement. They treat her just the same as before, which isn’t always the case in public.

“There’s societal biases. There’s always the pity. I’ll show up at a club to go dancing, and people will say ‘are you sure you should be doing that?’ There’s way more good than bad, but it’s definitely there,” she says.

Having a sense of humour, and being able to laugh at her situation, has helped her stay upbeat throughout the experience. She has fun telling people she lost her leg in a shark or bear attack, and dressed up as a pirate with a peg leg for Halloween.

“I’d say it cost me an arm and a leg, but it really only cost me a leg,” she says.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Her current prosthesis  is considered an every day walking leg. It’s shaped and coloured to match her other leg, and she can even paint the toenails if she wants to, but the prosthesis has its limitations. What she really wants is a specialized sports prosthesis.

“You know how everyone has quite a few pairs of shoes? It seems amputees end up with a lot of legs. I’ll have to get a leg rack,” she says with a laugh.

The sports prosthesis she wants to get has a flexible blade with a heel on it that will allow her to sprint and maneuver on more uneven ground. It’s also roughly $13,000 and isn’t covered by medical care.

To help cover the cost, Armstrong Rotary and the Lion’s Club are organizing a fundraiser and silent auction later this month. All funds generated from ‘The Lion’s Mystery Dinner’ will go towards the purchase of McInroy’s new prosthesis.

Without family, her boyfriend, friends, community members, horses and her puppy Xena (who, incidentally, was born the same day she lost her leg) she says she wouldn’t be where she is today. 

“I’ve had those moments where it seems like the easiest option would be giving up, but I’m also very stubborn. I want to get back to what I love doing,” she says.

To donate cash or a silent auction item for the fundraiser, contact Armstrong Rotarian Shirley Fowler at 250-546-3732.

Tickets to the Saturday, Nov. 19 event are $20 and are available at the Armstrong/Spallumcheen Chamber of Commerce, Chocoliro Finest Chocolates and Final Touch Framing/Printing. The event is being held at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall at 3335 Patterson St. in Armstrong. Cocktails will be served starting at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and the live auction at 8:30 p.m.

You can also donate to a Go Fund Me account set up to help pay for the prosthesis, as well as treatment and medication not covered by health care.

— This story was updated at 10:42 a.m. Nov. 9, 2016, to add a video. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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