PHOENIX — Digging deep on a daily basis, 51-year-old Angie Heuser is pushing herself to achieve despite the unthinkable occurring just a few years ago.
“There’s not one person in this room that hasn’t had something go on in their life that has devastated them to their extreme,” said Angie inside the Desert Foothills YMCA Friday.
Her personal extreme came in 2013 after the mother of two injured her left knee while performing a pretest for her second-degree black belt.
“I was sparring, and I head kicked someone and heard a pop, felt the pop, it was loud,” said Angie.
She says the injury required surgery, but complications would soon arise forcing another surgery and then another. Angie says over four years it would be 10 in all.
“I did PT after PT after PT, I put myself through everything and it just always got worse,” said Angie.
A blood clot in the leg in 2018 would deal a seemingly insurmountable blow. Out of options, she chose to amputate from the knee down.
“I didn’t want to die before my kids grew up, and my husband and I had a future of things to do so,” said Angie. “There were tears. There were times where I would cry it out.”
The avid skier and martial artist decided then and there, this would not be the end.
“I mean I had a list of things I’m going to do,” said Angie. “By this date, I would do this, by this date I would achieve this, and I was off and running.”
Within five months of the surgery, Angie was skiing again, this time on one leg. Then she decided to try surfing and adaptive water skiing. She Ran her first 10k, and took up horseback riding, checking off her list one by one.
“You have a choice to make,” said Angie. “You can either cave in and sit back and have a 'woe is me' pity party, or you can say to yourself, what can I do right now with what I have, and not give up and not lose hope.”
A message she now communicates through her BE-YOU-TIFUL Adaptive Warrior PODCAST. It helps others facing their own uphill battles to heal alongside her. Inside the Desert Foothills YMCA, where she can be found nearly every day, her perseverance is infectious.
“It’s a beacon of light for me personally and for all the other staff here, having her as a part of this community and getting to know her and really inspired and made a difference for a lot of us,” said Desert Foothills YMCA Executive Director Chris Hart.
Something there’s no doubt she’ll continue to do as she proves through sheer will that her best days are yet to come.
“I’m gonna accomplish everything on my to-do list even if it seems next to impossible, I’m going to do it,” said Angie.