Re: Big Al Latall loses leg but does it all

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: Al's a great guy, I wish him well. : : Publication:APD - West Bend Daily News; Date:May 6, 2010; Section:Front Page; Page Number:A1 : : A glass always half full : : Amputee makes the most of the cards he was dealt : : By KRISTINE WALDEN Daily News Staff : : Meeting Allen Latall as he answers the door to his West Bend residence on crutches, you would never suspect he spent the past four decades undergoing repeated surgeries before having his leg amputated last month. : : “There’s always hope for something better, that it will turn around. Even if it’s a bad time and it stinks right now, there will be something better,” he said. “There’s always hope to hold onto.” : : Born in 1962, Latall was diagnosed at the age of 4 with neurofibromatosis — a genetic condition passed through families that can lie dormant. : : “It causes a range of symptoms. Some may have large craniums, some have café au lait spots and others may have nodules on nerve endings — tumorous growths that in most cases are benign. In severe cases it can cause deformed limbs, like it did for me — with my right knee and ankle,” Latall said. : : Through grade school it caused his right leg to grow quicker than his left, eventually leading him to wear a shoe with a higher lift — one of the only things Latall ever complained about. : : “I hated wearing that shoe. I still rode my bike and ran, maybe not as well as the other kids,” he said. “Earlier on I tried to ignore it. I always try to be as ‘normal’ as possible. I still played pick-up softball, tossed around a football and Frisbee.” : : In middle school he underwent surgery to turn a knee bone around, and in 1987 had a de-bulking surgery to remove tumorous masses. : : “My knee and foot were very large. It was always difficult to buy shoes. I guess I was never what you’d call in style, but my mom tried to do the best she could to make me feel more comfortable,” he said. : : After several other de-bulking surgeries, cancerous cells were discovered in 1996. A doctor in Chicago wanted to amputate his leg immediately. : : “I thought, ‘take my leg off ? No way. This is my leg,’” Latall said. : : Instead he chose radiation, which he believes did something. However, he felt like he still had a sword hanging over his head. : : While he’s never felt sorry for himself, Latall said it wasn’t until 1999 when he fully accepted his condition — when he wasn’t afraid to shower at his local gym, as he looked around and saw everybody was different. : : “I thought, ‘I’m no different than anyone else. ... This is me. I am who I am. This is the body God gave me, and if you want to stare? Stare. This is my problem, what’s your problem. If it’s not with your body, it’s in your head,’” he laughed. : : After a career in Chicago radio and dealing with his condition, Latall finally decided to focus his energy to looking for love. : : “One lonely night back in the Chicago area (in November 2002) I went to (the dating site) Lutherans Online. There was nothing in Chicago or Minnesota, so I looked in Wisconsin and saw her ad — it was the most honest ad,” he said. : : His now wife, Margie, suffered a spine injury in a car accident and like Allen made the most of it, and is now able to walk with a cane when doctors told her she would never walk again. : : They had their first date Dec. 21, 2002, spending the entire day together before he drove back home late that night. : : “The next day I got a call from her saying she talked to her sister and wanted to invite me to Christmas dinner. This is only my second date and I’m supposed to meet her whole family? I thought about it for a while and then thought, ‘Allen, it’s a no-brainer, you go,’” he said. : : He proposed in August 2003 and they were married in West Bend in September 2004. : : His health seemed to be going well until January 2008 when his knee “just blew up.” He went in to have it drained, only to have the process repeated five times within days of each other. : : After two other surgeries his leg seemed better, however a lump came back to be a very cancerous form and a doctor who fought to save his leg years ago said it couldn’t be done this time. : : “I guess it was something I was preparing myself to hear,” he said. “If there were 60 seconds of tears in me the whole time that’s it, I just accepted it. Now maybe is the time I’ll get some peace in my life. I’m looking at a better life once I get my prosthesis. I’ll be active again. I’m looking forward to bike riding and getting back into the pool with my wife. It’s just a better way of life, a little more normal, calmer way of life.” : : Ten days after the amputation of his leg on March 2, Latall went to a Bucks game. His car is outfitted for him to drive using his left leg, and he’s attending Brewer’s games and hoping he can get back to work in the future. : : “I don’t consider myself that special. Some people say ‘Why me?’ I say, ‘Why not me?’ What makes me above anyone else not to have challenges?” he said. : : Those who know Latall would have to disagree with him on one point — he is special. : : Mike Kessler has known Latall for more than 20 years, since they worked together at WMAQ-AM in Chicago in the 1980s and ’90s. : : The way Latall approaches life — including not getting handicap stickers for his car until a job in Milwaukee necessitated it, saying “others have it worse” — has been an inspiration for him. : : “For years I’ve said to myself ‘he’s like a saint,’” Kessler said. “Knowing Al has made me more religious than I was before.” : : Latall doesn’t agree with the ‘saint’ label, but said religion has been his major inspiration. : : “I’ve had my days where it hasn’t been as good, but I bring it back. A positive attitude, hope and faith all go together — that’s what it has done it for me,” Latall said. “There are a lot of people who have it worse off and others not. You’ve got to hang on to the fact that you do have a lot of life to live.”

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