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As the Paralympics come to a close, Ricki speaks with snowboarder and Paralympian Amy Purdy, who at age 19 was placed on life support and underwent a double amputation after getting diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis. Amy tells her story and explains to Ricki how she was able to remain positive and grateful through terrible prognoses, new prosthetics, and competition at the highest level. They also bond over their shared experience performing with Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars!

Show Resources:

• Learn more about Amy’s work at, Adaptive Action Sports
• Follow her @amypurdygurl on Instagram.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Ricki Lake, Amy Purdy

Ricki Lake  00:02

This is The High Life with me, Ricki Lake, where we find out how my guests crack the code to living a full and vibrant life. So you can too. Today’s guest is one of the most inspiring badass people I know. She is a force to be reckoned with. Amy Purdy is a New York Times best selling author, motivational speaker, a dancer, a three time Paralympic medalist, and she’s been through a lot. When she was 19, her life changed forever. She was diagnosed with meningitis, she was placed on life support and underwent a double amputation. But none of this stopped her from pursuing snowboarding at the highest level. Amy helped create her own prosthetic legs and was soon back on her board, competing in both the 2014 and 2018 Paralympics, and later competing as the first double amputee contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Amy’s list of accomplishments doesn’t stop there. She is also the founder of adaptive action sports, plus she fought for the inclusion of snowboarding in the Paralympics. I am so happy to welcome her on the show, especially now just as the Paralympic Games in Paris comes to a close. Amy, I love you. Thank you for coming on my show.

 

Amy Purdy  01:08

Ricky, I am so excited. Thank you so much for having me. This is just This is just a treat to be able to spend some time with you.

 

Ricki Lake  01:16

Before we get started. I ask all of my guests, where are you getting your highs from right now. What is bringing you joy?

 

Amy Purdy  01:22

Where am I getting my highs from right now? You know what? From friends, we just spent an incredible weekend in Seattle with a couple good friends, and last night was my husband’s birthday, so we had friends over, and it just it makes me feel so grateful. It gets you out of your head, right? You’re not thinking of what you have to do, or what’s going on in your life. You were just present having a good time. So I would say my friends right now are bringing me my high.

 

Ricki Lake  01:49

Bringing you joy. Yeah okay, so let’s tell everybody how we met. We met a year and a half ago on the summit at sea cruise ship, and I immediately recognized you and I, you know, of course, Dancing with the Stars. You and I had the same partner, Derek Huff, and you were a few seasons after me, and so that is an experience in and of itself. And you were so incredible. I went and did a deep dive yesterday, watching all the your dances. But it was such a gift. We got to spend a couple days together, Daniel, my husband, Ross.

 

Amy Purdy  02:19

I loved meeting you for the first time, because, first of all, I just, I totally fanned out. I watched the Ricki Lake show when I was young, and so for you to come up to me and want to meet me, like I just, I was so excited to meet you, and I just felt so grateful that you wanted to meet me. And then we ended up having a blast. We sing karaoke that night. I’ve got video of us.

 

Ricki Lake  02:41

It was just such a playful experience. And I was back on the boat this year, and you were missed Absolutely. Well, let’s start with your story, like, what happened to you that caused you to lose your legs and go on this purpose filled life of yours?

 

Amy Purdy  02:55

Yes, so well. First of all, I grew up in Las Vegas, not exactly where you expect a professional snowboarder to come from, but I started snowboarding at 15, and absolutely fell in love with it. I knew that it was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I found myself through snowboarding. I found my friend group through snowboarding, and I also just kind of found my like passion through snowboarding, and so I decided to go to school to be a massage therapist when I was 18, it was the day after high school, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life yet I knew I didn’t want to go to college, so I thought, well, if I’m a massage therapist, I could travel the world, I could snowboard, and I’d have this job that could travel with me. And so I became a massage therapist. Started working in Vegas. Absolutely loved my job. Worked at this world class spa. I was making great money. I was just, I remember just feeling like so high on life, like I’m helping people. I love what I do. I’m making good money. I just was so excited about my life, and then all of a sudden, my life took a detour. I started to feel sick one day, so I went home from work early, and less than 24 hours later, I was in the hospital on life support, where I was given less than a 2% chance of living and I thought at first, my whole family and the doctors, we thought it was the flu, then we thought it was toxic shock syndrome, because I was on my period at the time, and they didn’t know what it was. But it wasn’t until five days later that they got the blood work back that I had meningococcal meningitis, which is a very deadly bacteria. We don’t exactly know how I got it, but they say one in four people are carriers of this bacteria, like it’s just one of those bacterias that just like lives on us.

 

Ricki Lake  04:44

Yeah, and you don’t have any issues. Most people have no issues.

 

Amy Purdy  04:47

Exactly because our immune systems fight it off. But for some reason, my immune system didn’t fight it off. And if it gets into your bloodstream, it’s incredibly deadly. It doubles every two hours, something like that, where it’s like all this. And you think you have the flu, and within hours, you’re fighting for your life.

 

Ricki Lake  05:03

You looked in the mirror at one point you said your nose was purple, your cheeks were purple because your organs were shutting down totally.

 

Amy Purdy  05:10

Yep, I was in septic shock. My mom took my temperature. My mom actually worked in the emergency room for years, like she knows the signs and symptoms of meningitis. There was nothing here that I originally would say that I had that I just felt sick, like I had the flu, and my whole family left town the next day because my dad put on this Harley run in Utah.

 

Ricki Lake  05:30

And so, like, as in Harley Davidson, like, motorcycle run.

 

Amy Purdy  05:33

Yes, like, for years my dad would do these, like Harley runs, hundreds, if not 1000s, of bikes would show up and go through the mountains of Utah. So I was gonna go up with my family, because it was like our annual tradition to go up and work this event. And I just told my parents, you know, don’t worry about me. I probably have a 24 hour flu. I was living with my parents at the time, and my mom took my temperature one last time. It was actually really low. I remember it registered really low on the thermometer, and we just thought, oh, I don’t have a temperature anymore, but really, I was going into septic shock, and we didn’t know that at the time. And so my parents left, and I was laying in my parents’ bed, and I was so tired, and I was like, kind of throwing up, and just kind of like how you would be if you have the flu, like you kind of just stick to my stomach, hot temperature, kind of hot, cold, just not feeling good. And all of a sudden I felt really tired, and so I fell asleep, and I couldn’t wake myself up. I was trying so hard to open my eyes. Over and over I was like forcing myself awake, and then I fell into the deepest sleep I’ve ever felt. And then suddenly I heard this voice say, Amy, get up and look in the mirror. And this voice was so startling, I immediately opened my eyes, and I looked around. There was nobody there. But as I was sitting up, I started to realize something was really wrong, and I kind of scooted to that edge of the bed. I barely had any energy. I put my feet on the floor, and I stood up. And when I did that, I realized that I couldn’t fill my feet. My feet were completely numb, and so I looked down at my feet, and my feet were purple. I looked at my hands, my hands were purple. And then I looked at my reflection in the mirror, which the mirror was right by my parents bed, and my nose, my chin and my cheeks were purple as well. So in that moment, everything hit, and I knew I was dying. My cousin walked in. My mom had called her and said, hey, can you just go check on Amy and make sure she has Gatorade or whatever it is she needs. So my cousin walked in at that time, and she dropped the Gatorade on the ground, and she said, oh my God, it looks like you’re dead. And I said, I’m dying, I know I am.

 

Ricki Lake  07:55

But you guys didn’t call 911 you didn’t call nine.

 

Amy Purdy  07:58

Oh, we didn’t call 911 and there was this crazy little moment where, like, well, first of all, I try, I, like, put my flip flops on, and couldn’t keep them on. Like, I was trying to run down the hall to go to the car, and my flip flops were, like, flying off my feet. And I was like, what is going on? And but I just knew at that time I got to get to the hospital right now. But on the way to the hospital, my lungs started to collapse. So I was trying. I had a focus on my breath. I was I was just telling myself to breathe, because I wasn’t it. I just wasn’t able to breathe. I couldn’t catch a breath. And basically, by the time I got to the hospital, which was maybe about 15 minutes away, my lungs collapsed, my veins collapsed. I was immediately put on life support. I was in full septic shock, and they called my parents and said she maybe has two hours left to live. Oh, my God. It was just like that. You know, I went from thinking I had the flu to absolutely fighting for my life.

 

Ricki Lake  08:59

Wow, oh my gosh, this story. I cannot believe this story, but we have to take a quick break. We’ll be right back with more, with Amy Purdy.

 

Ricki Lake  09:15

Do you have a memory? What’s your last memory before you actually, they took your legs.

 

Amy Purdy  09:21

Yeah, I had a last memory before going into I went into an induced coma. And my last memory, well, I remember the nurse, her name was penny, and she had red hair, and I remember she was crying, trying to find a vein because she was trying to get an IV in, and she kept saying to the doctor, why can’t I find a vein? And the doctor said, because she’s in cardiac arrest. And I just remember thinking, I’m in cardiac arrest, like, what is going on? So that night, my parents did show up, and I remember my feet were so cold, ice cold, and I kept asking. Dad, please let me see my feet. My dad said your feet are the least of our worries, like we’re not worried about your feet. And I was like, my feet hurt so bad. So my dad let me see my feet. He pulled the covers back, and my feet were just totally purple.

 

Ricki Lake  10:13

You had a less than 2% chance of survival.

 

Amy Purdy  10:16

Less than 2% chance of survival, yeah. Because basically this bacteria so it gets into your bloodstream. It just completely, you know, multiplies and triples and does all this stuff. It takes over your body. It’s in every organ. I lost full kidney function. In fact, I went into the hospital in full kidney failure, and the doctor said, We’ve never seen anybody pull out of kidney failure like this before, so I was I had the odds stacked against me from the minute I stepped into the hospital.

 

Ricki Lake  10:47

And so is it because you were so young, you were so healthy and you were an athlete before? Is that what helped you to survive this?

 

Amy Purdy  10:55

Yes, and I actually wasn’t an athlete before, but I would say I was really healthy before. I worked out every single day. I loved working out. I was, like, obsessed with working out, and I snowboarded, but I wasn’t an athlete. I didn’t consider myself an athlete at all at that time, but absolutely, they said, even if I was two years older, my body wouldn’t have handled what I went through. I mean, I almost died multiple times. My spleen fully burst. They rushed me into emergency surgery and didn’t know if I’d survived that. I mean, I was very, very lucky to survive. And about two weeks later, when I started to come to, when they woke me up from this coma and started to pull out the ventilator, I was very aware of how lucky I was, and I felt that way, and I think that helped me move forward, because I really didn’t feel like, oh my god, I’m losing all this stuff. Instead, I felt like it could have been so much worse. So I ended up, I ended up losing both my legs below the knees, and when I woke up from the coma that I was in, I was very aware that my feet were in trouble. My feet were completely black, and they said you’re probably going to lose the tip of your nose. And then I for sure, thought I was losing my fingers. And so when that didn’t happen, like all of a sudden, my hands kind of took a turn and started to get healthier.

 

Ricki Lake  12:26

What actually happens? The nerve endings kind of wake up, or.

 

Amy Purdy  12:29

Well when you go into septic shock, your body pulls blood from your extremities to save your organs. It’s actually a pretty amazing thing. You know, your body is built to survive, and I’m totally it is made to survive. It will do every even if you’re not taking care of it, which is just crazy. You think about all the people who don’t take care of their bodies, and yet their bodies are fighting and fighting for them. So I Yeah, so when you go into septic shock, you’re you can survive without your limbs, but you can’t survive without your organs. So your body pulls blood from your extremities to save your organs. All the blood goes to your core, and you start to lose circulation to your extremities. So at one point, though, my hands got better, and so they held off on amputating my fingers. And just very slowly, my fingers just got better and better and better. I didn’t have fingerprints for years.

 

Ricki Lake  13:26

No, wow.

 

Amy Purdy  13:27

Yeah, but now I do yeah. So my fingers got better, my nose got better, but my feet didn’t get better. And so it was about, gosh, it was maybe a month after I entered the hospital that we knew we had to amputate my legs. If we did not do that, it can turn to gangrene, and I got very lucky that it didn’t already turn to gangrene, because that can happen sometimes within 48 hours of going into septic shock. But for me, it kind of just stuck. It stayed where it was for quite some time. But then the doctor was like, if we do not amputate your legs tomorrow, here, and he pointed at my ankles, then we’ll have to amputate your legs above the knees next, which would have been a totally different experience. Completely different experience.

 

Ricki Lake  14:15

Can you can you tell us, how is that different?

 

Amy Purdy  14:17

I would say mobility and just the amount of effort that it takes to walk in prosthetics. Anyways, it’s a little I don’t want to say it’s easier below the knee, but because you have your knees, you’re able to be just that much more mobile than being above the knee. I know plenty of people who are above the knee. I mean, you can see the Paralympics are on right now, and all these Paralympians are amazing. And I know so many who do incredible things, but you know, like, say snowboarding, snowboarding would be incredibly hard if I was above the knee, because you’d have to rely on even more mechanics and trying to get the knees right. I lost my ankles and so just kind of by losing one joint. It makes it definitely easier than above the knee, not easy by any means, but easier.

 

Ricki Lake  15:06

incredible. Okay, so cut to you are in the hospital for two, two and a half months. You’re going through this transition of, like, your body is different than how it was when you went in. And how did you go? Like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna get back on my snowboard. Like, how did you I’m gonna be in the Olympics. How did you to make that transition?

 

Amy Purdy  15:24

I mean, it was a journey to kind of get there. It definitely, you know, I was not thinking in the hospital, I’m going to compete in the olympic or paralympic games someday, by snowboarding. I just cared about snowboarding. Snowboarding was such a passion of mine. It absolutely saved my life. All I cared about was snowboarding again. I laid in my hospital bed and I visualized myself snowboarding again. And you know, I would ask the doctors every day, and so we’ve got all of these, just all my hospital records, like all the doctor’s notes. And if you go through all these doctor’s notes, pretty much every single one of them for that whole two months, says the patient is asking again if she can snowboard. And you know, basically, the doctors would say, we don’t know. We don’t know because you’re going to have prosthetic legs. One doctor said, you know, you might be walking with crutches or a cane or in a wheelchair, like we don’t know what you’ll be able to do. And at that point, of course, I didn’t know what I could do, because I had never seen a, you know, I’ve never even seen an amputee in my life, like I had never even seen a prosthetic leg in my entire life, to know what was possible. But I remember seeing somebody brought an article in of a double leg amputee running on running blades, and something just clicked. And I thought to myself, if she can run, then I can snowboard, and it was just enough. And she was beautiful too. And she, like, looked great. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, it just gave me this vision of like, okay, if she can be like that, I can do that as well. And I think just this light switch went off of like, okay, so what do I gotta do to get there?

 

Ricki Lake  17:03

And so what like, how did you end up getting the right prosthetic legs to get on the snowboard? And how soon after the experience in the hospital did you get back on a board?

 

Amy Purdy  17:13

So when I was in the hospital, I gave myself three goals, and this was as I was being wheeled into the operating room when they were amputating my legs so they were willing me into the operating room. And I gave myself three goals. And the first goal was I was not going to feel sorry for myself. I wasn’t a victim, and I didn’t want to act like a victim. And the second one was, when I figured all this out, I want to help others do the same, whatever that looks like. And the third one was that I was going to snowboard that year, and I had never missed a year of snowboarding, and I wasn’t about to. So this was August, and I thought, okay, maybe I can get on prosthetics and actually snowboard this winter. And so that became my goal, was being able to snowboard that year, and so when I left the hospital, I started the process is so daunting. The process is so hard getting prosthetics to fit right. First of all, your body is changing constantly, and it will change forever. But also it really changes over those first couple years. Because if you think about it, like you’ve got all this muscle mass, like my calf and and then swelling from surgery and like, everything has to kind of like atrophy and settle and turn into, eventually what it’s going to turn into and and so you’re trying to make these prosthetics that are made of carbon fiber, that are not flexible at all fit your body, and they have to fit perfect down to the millimeter, or you are really uncomfortable. If it rubs on a bone, you’re like, I can’t even take a step. If it squeezes your calf and your calf can’t expand, you’re like, I again, I can’t even take a step. But if you make them too big, you fall to the bottom, and you’re walking on the bot. It’s just this ongoing, lifelong journey. And, and it really hit me. I think that’s when reality really hit me. Of just how hard this was going to be, was trying to walk in prosthetics and thinking, Oh, I’ll get my legs and I’ll move on with my life. And that’s just not how it is. It’s like this is going to be a journey for the rest of my life.

 

Ricki Lake  19:23

Let’s take a quick break, and then we’ll return with Amy Purdy.

 

Ricki Lake  19:35

What was that first run like for you when you were on the board for the first time?

 

Amy Purdy  19:39

Yeah, so I did get to snowboard that year. I think it was March. So I set that goal. I’m snowboarding this year. That’s all there is to it. And I went up just with my basic feet. So they, when you first get prosthetics, they are just basic walking feet. They’re not dynamic. You can’t run in them, you can’t snowboard, you can’t do any of this stuff in them. But. Those were the feet that I went up on the mountain with. And, you know, everything was different. I remember walking in my boots. I couldn’t feel my feet on the ground. I like, slipped and fell on the snow like I was just, you know, slopping around trying to walk, got on the chairlift. I think when I was on the chairlift, that was the first time that kind of fear set in. What if I can’t do this. This whole time, I’ve been visualizing like I’m working towards something, trying to figure something out. This is the first time that I thought this moment is going to let me know if I can do this again or not. And and I I identified myself so much with being a snowboarder that I really didn’t know what I would do in my life if I didn’t have snowboarding. It was such a part of my life. And so I was really scared going up the chairlift that I would, you know, find out that I actually can’t do this. But I got off the chairlift, okay. I strapped into my board. I stood up. It felt weird, but I thought I got it. I can ride my heel edge, and that’s okay. But then I went to ride my toe edge, my ankles wouldn’t bend, because they’re not really dynamic ankles at all. So my ankles wouldn’t bend, and I ended up just shooting straight down the mountain. I hit this bump. I was totally out of control. Hit this bump, fell. My goggles went one way, my beanie went the other way, and my legs still attached to my snowboard, went flying down the mountain. I’m still sitting on top of the mountain. I heard a lady scream from the chairlift, which I’m like, yeah. I mean, the last thing you want to see when someone’s you know, if you’re learning to snowboard or ski, right? Somebody break into pieces. Like, I literally broke body parts just went everywhere.

 

Ricki Lake  21:37

Was it painful? Or just your ego was bruised.

 

Amy Purdy  21:41

Oh yeah, just the ego is bruised. And I was just kind of like, damn it, you know, like you got to keep your legs on and be able to snowboard like this is just another challenge that I wasn’t expecting. And my sister and my friend were there, so they had to hike down, pick my legs up that were attached to my snowboard, bring them back up. And I was for a moment there, I was really defeated. Like, literally, right, like, I was really defeated. I was, I was like, this is why you don’t see people with prosthetic legs snowboarding. Like, this is so hard. Like, clearly, it’s not possible. But then I thought, wait a second, if I can figure out a way to keep my legs attached, and if I can figure out a way to just get a little bit more ankle motion, then maybe I actually can do this. Like, maybe those are the two things that I gotta figure out. And, you know, and I thought to myself too, like, maybe there’s nobody out here with prosthetic leg snowboarding, because they there hasn’t been somebody passionate enough to figure it out, like to really put in the work to figure it out. And maybe that person is me, because I knew how passionate I was about it, and so I immediately went back to my I went to my prosthetic shop. So that’s where our legs are made. So every city has multiple prosthetic shops, actually, which you would never know until you lose your legs. You know?

 

Ricki Lake  23:01

No, I did not know that. And you’re in Vegas at this time, or in Salt Lake City.

 

Amy Purdy  23:05

I was in Vegas, yep, so I was in Vegas. And, yeah, and I’m like, where do I even get legs made? You know? And there’s, like, a prosthetic shop that I drove past for most of my life, and never even paid attention that there was a prosthetic shop there.

 

Ricki Lake  23:18

And then does insurance cover? This? Is this. I mean, I would imagine it’s hugely expensive.

 

Amy Purdy  23:22

It’s hugely expensive, and it is a big deal. It is a big problem within our healthcare because different insurances do things differently. Some people, their insurance will pay for one leg, or, let’s say, one set of legs a lifetime. Ricky, I have gone through probably 40 sets of legs in my lifetime. So for to have insurance paper one set in a lifetime is impossible. That’s why you will see people who maybe are amputees sitting in a wheelchair when you’re thinking, Well, wait a second, can’t they get prosthetics? You see these Paralympians who are doing amazing things? No, I mean, they’re so expensive, so a prosthetic leg. So for me, being a double, if I were to just pay cash, it’s up to $30,000 for prosthetics. And you’re talking one set of prosthetics, and you you hope that they fit good, like they it doesn’t mean like, oh, this is an awesome fitting pair of legs, and you’re set for life like, it’s never, it’s never like that. It is such a journey. Legs will fit. All of a sudden, your body’s changed. You lost weight, you gained weight, you lost muscle, you gained muscle. You no longer can walk in them. You have to get another pair made. I felt very grateful that when I was in the hospital, I went into kidney failure. Because of that, it put me on Medicare, and it also put me on Medicaid, which I was on Medicaid because I was making cash as a massage therapist, so I was able to get on Medicaid and Medicare, which ended up taking care of like 80. Percent of my medical bills, including my prosthetics. And I would say Medicare is actually an incredible insurance for prosthetics. You get prosthetics every two years. I think so, at least with Medicare, they’re kind of taking care of you in a way that a lot of other insurance companies don’t do.

 

Amy Purdy  23:29

Dnd Dancing with the Stars you had, I don’t know how many different legs you had for just that experience. Can we talk about it for just a second?

 

Amy Purdy  25:24

Yes. I mean, I’m glad you, especially with you. Oh my gosh.

 

Ricki Lake  25:27

I mean, were you a fan of Dancing with the Stars before you did the show?

 

Amy Purdy  25:30

You know what? I wasn’t. I was so busy competing. At that point, I was doing World Cups. I was traveling all over the world. I just never even watched, I don’t think I ever sat down and actually watched an episode and Dina Katz.

 

Ricki Lake  25:44

Yes, she’s the best.

 

Amy Purdy  25:47

The best, so she called me, she actually, she emailed me, and she was like, Have you ever thought about being on dance with the stars? Like, would you want to do the show? And I’m like, Yeah, but here’s the thing I’ve and I’m sure you’re the same Ricky, like, you get used to things not panning out, right? You don’t get your hopes up just because, like, some opportunities come your way. Like, so I couldn’t allow myself to get too excited about that. Like, I thought, okay, that’s cool. That could be fun. But, you know, I’m just not gonna put my heart into that, because it may not work out. So I just dove right into snowboarding. I’m like, I’m training for the Paralympic Games, which were March of 2014 so she called in November of 2013 I didn’t hear anything that whole time. I literally just thought, well, it’s not happening. About two weeks before I went to the Paralympics, we get this contract from Dancing with the Stars. It’s like, we want you on the show. And I’m like, well, how am I going to do this? I’m going to be competing in Sochi. So the first Dancing with the Stars show was something like March 16. I was competing in Sochi on, like, March 14. So I’m like, there’s just no way that I’m even going to be able to make that happen, because everybody practiced for a couple weeks before.

 

Ricki Lake  26:58

Yeah, you get like, three weeks of practice before you go on the air. So what did you do? And then did you think, like, how am I gonna do this?

 

Amy Purdy  27:05

Yes, yeah, and I, in fact, I called my manager and said, I can’t do this. There’s no like, this. I can’t do this because if I also don’t have time to practice, I’m not gonna make a fool out of myself, like, the world is already going to assume I can’t do this having prosthetic legs. And I was right, because as soon as news broke that double leg amputee is on the show, like, Twitter went crazy with like, oh, you know, the judges are just gonna give her sympathy points or like, oh, they’re only doing this because they feel bad for her. Like, there was so much stuff, and I’m like, I haven’t even had a chance to even figure out what I’m doing.

 

Ricki Lake  27:42

Were one of my favorite dancers ever. I am obsessed with the show, and I was obsessed before I did it, and even more so after, because it’s such a grueling I’m obsessed now. But your dances in particular, and I watched them all yesterday before this, this interview, I mean, you, it was magic. And for you, I would imagine, I mean, you did like these, these incredible like acrobatics and your contemporary and your freestyle and your jazz. I mean, it was, you were the most beautiful dancer. Honestly, I’m in awe, in awe of what you accomplished. You should have won.

 

Amy Purdy  28:15

I mean, Derek and I had, we had a blast. And, you know, they don’t always show this stuff on TV like they don’t show, they don’t always show what the week look like. They’ll pick parts of it, you know, right? They create a narrative. Yeah, we had so much fun, but we also, of course, had so much there was just pressure, and I knew that the world was watching me, expecting me to fail, like they expected me to fail. I have prosthetic legs. I had to prove I wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to prove myself wrong too, like I wanted to believe I can actually do this, but I also wanted to represent what the possibilities are. Because there were so many people, not just with prosthetic legs, but people who are watching, and kids who are watching who, for one reason or another, believe they can’t do something. And I was representing what the possibilities are that like, yes, if you work hard, you get creative, you can find a way. And that’s basically what we did every week. We worked hard, we got creative. We’d have weeks where we had no idea what feet I was wearing, the feet that I had didn’t work. There’s not any dancing feet out there. So we were using, you know, I would use my snowboard foot, and we’re like, how does that move? And then I’d order, I’d be online, looking for other types of feet and calling manufacturers and having them overnight, like high heel feet that are just made of foam and wood. And that’s it.

 

Ricki Lake  29:38

You did that with a contemporary, right? The contemporary way?

 

Amy Purdy  29:41

No, those were the tippy toe. Those were swimming feet, actually. Yeah, so those were, so those feet were made for swimming. And I’ll tell you a quick, funny story but you know, if you can imagine when you’re swimming, your toes are pointed behind you. And so I knew for the Argentine Tango and the contemporary I needed to be able to point my toes, especially. Actually the Argentine Tango. And so I remembered seeing these swimming feet in a magazine and seeing that they almost look like ballerina feet, but you swim in them, you don’t walk in them. And I called the manufacturer, and I I said, hi, I’m on Dancing with the Stars. I’m hoping that I can get these feet to dance in. And they said, oh, they are not made for dancing. They’re not even made for walking. They’re made for swimming, and that’s it. So I called back the next day, and I said I was hoping I could get these feet to swim in. And they overnighted them to me, and I realized I could balance on the very tips of my toes, just like a ballerina. So we ended up doing multiple dances. You know, I was on the very tips, my toes, my ankles didn’t move at all.

 

Ricki Lake  30:43

How did that experience compare? Like getting and using feet that are not even used for that purpose, the pressure of that versus the Paralympics and you competing, which is more intense is, are they the same?

 

Amy Purdy  30:55

You know? And I get this question quite a bit, and I really feel like it felt like the Paralympics every single week. That’s what Dancing with the Stars felt like to me, and that’s why I say that everything aligned perfectly. I just so believe in, you know, I believe in things being meant to be like, just the way that they align, like the timing was so perfect, because I just come off of the Paralympic Games. So I competed in the Paralympics, and less than 48 hours later, I was competing on dancer at the start. So I went from Russia Straight to LA straight to live. I missed all the promo shoots. I missed. I didn’t even have time to get a spray tan. I literally went straight from there into an outfit, like pushed on stage live, like it was, I was jet lagged. It was so crazy. I was it was so surreal.

 

Ricki Lake  31:45

And it was probably the time of your life, right?

 

Amy Purdy  31:47

It was the time of my life. It was like the whole time was just crazy. I mean, it’s such a crazy experience. You step into a completely different world, like you said. It’s like the outfits and the music and the it’s like stepping into a fantasy or like a fairy tale, like every week, you take on a new character, and it’s like you’re listening to the music and you’re getting all the fields, and you’re creating a performance. You know, you’re you’re creating art.

 

Ricki Lake  32:12

Amy, you are so inspiring. You’re such a joy. Adaptive Action Sports. Is your organization?

 

Ricki Lake  32:19

What is, what does your organization do?

 

Amy Purdy  32:19

It is.

 

Amy Purdy  32:21

Yeah, so we work with Paralympic hopefuls who want to snowboard in the Paralympic Games. But we also work with people with disabilities who want to snowboard just for the fun of it, you know, just for recreation. I mean, snowboarding saved my life. So we created it to be able to give people this outlet, to be able to snowboard, be a part of this community, be a part of this lifestyle, but also if they want to train for the Paralympic Games, we’ve created a pipeline to the Paralympics and and they can do that. So we’ve got, gosh, we’ve got athletes that come out from all over the world to train with us. And we were able to put a lot of athletes on the snowboard team, the US snowboard team, and continue to do so. And yeah, it’s just being able to kind of share the passion of the outdoors, of this community and this lifestyle and snowboarding.

 

Ricki Lake  33:11

It’s amazing, like you really just have found your purpose through this extraordinary experience. And what’s next for you?

 

Amy Purdy  33:18

Good question. Ricki, I know, because, you know, I will tell you, there was some crazy times that were amazing. I did the Paralympics. One, how many medals? Two or three medals. You forget, there’s so many for you. Then, you know, dance with the stars. Then wrote a book that became a New York Times bestseller, then went on a tour with Oprah. Now, I speak all over the world, and I’m so grateful that I’m able to do that. And I’ll tell you, that’s one thing that I realized is a key to happiness, is problem solving, figuring things out. When you don’t have problems to solve and everything’s easy, you really aren’t as fulfilled as when you’re really actively trying to figure things out, and I realized that that’s maybe where I’ve gotten, where where I where I am, because I like figuring things out. I wanted to figure out how to dance, I wanted to figure out how to snowboard, I wanted to figure my feet out. And I realized, as frustrating as those moments were, those were also kind of the happiest times in my life, because you’re actively problem solving. And so anyways, I just think, you know, my life has taught me that. And I’m also, I’m starting to write another book. I’m at the very beginning of writing a second book so.

 

Ricki Lake  34:33

Amazing, what’s the focus? Or do you not want to say?

 

Amy Purdy  34:37

So, no, I can tell you, actually. So my first book was very much so a memoir. It was called on my own two feet, from losing my legs to learning the dance of life. It was very much so a memoir of, like, losing my legs, going on to do the Paralympics, Dancing with the Stars and kind of all of that. But this book is more the how, like, how did I do those things? Like, how did I find resilience in my toughest days. How did I overcome those challenges? What like, what were the exact things that I did that that I can help others with? So it’s a little bit more of a step by step guide of of building resilience in your life, like, no matter what challenges you’re faced with. And so it’s a little bit more of a self help focus than it is a memoir. But it’s, it’s really exciting to kind of take on another project. And I don’t know I look at that. I look at things like, when we die, what do you leave behind? And I feel like, in a book, you can leave like this is the things that I learned in my life, and I hope it helps somebody on their journey as well.

 

Ricki Lake  35:42

You’ve helped so many people. Amy Purdy, thank you so much for spending this time with me. It’s so good to see you. Send my love to your man.

 

Amy Purdy  35:50

And you look so happy, healthy. You’re glowing. I love it.

 

CREDITS 36:00

I really enjoyed that conversation with Amy. I feel like she personifies what this podcast is all about. You know, she found purpose through this very traumatic and unique experience, and she’s just so positive and so inspiring and so fun, and it just was really an enlightening conversation that I’m so grateful for. You can find Amy on Instagram @AmyPurdygurl, G, U, R, L, I love that. Make sure you check out her memoir on My Own Two Feet, and also listen to old episodes of her podcast bouncing forward wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening.  There’s much more of The High Life with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like extra rapid fire questions with actress Rachel Harris. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts. The High Life is a production of Lemonada Media. Isabella Kulkarni and Kathryn Barnes, produced our show. Our mixes by James Sparber. Executive Producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Additional Lemonada support from Rachel Neel and Steve Nelson. You can find me  @Rickilake on Instagram. Follow The High Life with Ricki Lake, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.