JANI, from Cologne, Germany, has made the incredible decision to finally show the world her amputated leg through social media, after having a procedure known as a rotationplasty and keeping it hidden on social media for years. Jani was only nine when she felt an excruciating pain above her right knee while participating at a school sports class. Jani was rushed to hospital and informed by doctors that she had an aggressive and rare bone cancer, named Osteosarcoma, in her right leg. Her family made the difficult decision to have a rotationplasty, where the knee is removed and the lower leg and foot then turned 180 degrees before being reattached to the femur bone (where the knee once was) in effect becoming the new knee joint. Jani told Truly: 'I felt so out of place, it really looked like a horror movie that I had been through. I was shocked, I was definitely speechless and thinking about it makes me so sad'. Although Jani accepted her new self, she felt like she had to hide her real leg and she always wore an artificial leg. However, last year after an emergency surgery, Jani made the incredibly brave decision to stop hiding her leg from the world and started posting pictures of herself on social media without her artificial leg.
Follow Jani Here: https://www.instagram.com/rotation_amputee180
Follow Jani Here: https://www.instagram.com/rotation_amputee180
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NewsTranscript
00:00I had cancer that developed close to joints. I experienced quite heavy pain above the knee.
00:08They decided to do the rotationplasty. Right now I still have a knee even though it's my foot.
00:15Thinking about this makes me also sad. Oh god. I actually accept myself. It took a while to
00:22actually really take off my artificial leg and take pictures the way I am. It's somehow like
00:29superpower. With the age of nine years I experienced quite heavy pain above the knee.
00:39I remember I was in sports class and we had a competition and I almost fell on the ground
00:48because I had such a pain. Then we went to the family doctor. The doctor sent us to
00:56a hospital. They got a biopsy. They told us okay it's aggressive cancer. It's not the good one.
01:03So we have to go directly into chemotherapy and see what happened with the leg. They decided to
01:11do the rotationplasty because one benefit is that you won't have phantom pain which I don't. So
01:20right now I still have a knee even though it's my foot. I was shocked. I definitely was speechless
01:27and thinking about this makes me also sad. Oh god. Maybe I need to cry. Yeah.
01:35Um
01:39yeah definitely still a bit sad because oh sorry
01:50once in a while just everything comes up and but this is it. I actually accept myself.
01:56It took a while though. One of the situations that I felt really uncomfortable. I remember I
02:05was wearing hot pants and it was a summer day. I just noticed a woman from farther away and she
02:11started screaming and I was so scared because I didn't really know what happened suddenly
02:20suddenly because she was just right to the to just close to me screaming like out of nothing
02:28and then I noticed from the from her facial expression that she was looking
02:35to my leg and she was so shocked um shocked the moment that she actually realized I have
02:44artificial leg. This year I actually decided no more hiding. I actually started with Instagram
02:50two years ago and I posted mostly traveling pictures. My Instagram profile is me having a
02:57rotationplasty and suffered of osteosarcoma. I want to contribute that to increase actually
03:05awareness of this situation. There is this kind of rotationplasty out there. It's an option that
03:12you can consider if you personally have to deal with the scams that I've been through or maybe
03:19somebody close to you is dealing with osteosarcoma. Like I received so many good feedbacks from my
03:27close friends. Jenny you're so awesome. I'm happy for you. You finally decided to post those pictures
03:34and you're not hiding yourself anymore. I was overwhelmed. Maybe almost on the crying side
03:41because it was too much I had to handle at the moment. For the future I think definitely going
03:47to continue with Instagram. Posting me and my rotationplasty in different kind of angles and
03:55spreading inspiration hope and if you hate people. My message to people out there who are having
04:02rotationplasty that they should just be at first grateful having this kind of treatment or got that
04:10kind of treatment and personally I think it's somehow like a superpower because who else can
04:18say about themselves that they're having an amputation, a leg amputation and still having
04:24two feet. You can be independent. One biggest lesson I have learned for myself, accept yourself.
04:40you