A woman diagnosed with cancer created an Instagram account for her amputated foot to share her story.
Kristi Loyall, from Oklahoma City, was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects soft tissue. In order to treat the cancer, she had to have her foot amputated.
“My first reaction was to make a joke out of it,” she told CTV News Channel. She jokingly asked if she could keep her amputated limb, only to later realize she really did want to hold onto her foot.
“I was thinking it would just be a really cool conversation piece,” she said.
While the request may seem strange, it’s not entirely unusual.
Loyall’s doctor told her that “some people want their limbs back for religious reasons to be buried with their whole body when they die.”
After her doctor agreed to her request, she got her foot in a biohazard bag a month after the operation.
“It was really peculiar. We went to pathology to pick it up and the first thing I did was move my toes,” she said. “My mom was really grossed out by that.”
She then took her foot to the Museum of Osteology to have the bones mounted and joined together, otherwise known as articulated.
Her cousin gave her the idea to show off Loyall’s foot on various adventures and she started the account called “OneFootWander,” which heavily features puns and the reality of cancer.
“It is a way for me to try and make other people laugh by my situation and also make myself laugh,” she said.
Loyall is now cancer free and she told CTV News Channel that she intends to keep travelling, posting her foot’s adventures and making people laugh.
