Kaylyn's Corner Update

I’m Kaylyn. You may have seen me decorating cakes in the front corner of the bakery through the window. I’m also the girl in the front corner with the robotic prosthetic arm. 

I found love for decorating cakes in high school and knew I wanted to use my crafty abilities in my future. I graduated from Johnson & Wales University of Charlotte in 2011 and found my forever work family a few years later at Sweet Traditions. 

Exactly 18 months ago, my world was completely rocked on a Sunday afternoon when my husband and I were in a rollover ATV accident that crushed my dominate right arm. While I prayed countless words during my ambulance ride, I knew in my heart I had just become a permanent lefty. 

I started writing as a lefty before I left the hospital and colored countless coloring book pages once I got home. LeAne sent me home with piping bags and two weeks later I was attempting to write “Happy Birthday”. By 6 weeks post-accident I had learned to use my little arm to guide my piping. The day I figured out I could still pipe as I did previously was a day of clarity. Because I knew then that I’d be capable of making a comeback. 

This week is a special week for me. Today, March 6th marks exactly 18 months since my accident. It’s also the anniversary of the week that I returned back to work last year. After many denials and appeals from my insurance company to get the prosthetic I wanted, I had finally gotten approved for a prosthetic arm. I was so eager to get back to my normal routine that I came back to work a few weeks before my prosthesis was actually complete. My prostheses, an i-limb with movable digits and different grip patterns, provides me with an amazing amount of function. Between my i-limb and bakery tools we've adapted, I'm capable of decorating cakes again.

LeAne is my work angel. She and Rowland are the reasons I still have a job and get to do what I love even with one less hand. All because they weren’t about to let me give up. The first thing I told LeAne when she came to visit me in the hospital was that I wasn’t going to be able to decorate cakes anymore. Even just hours after my accident she was determined that I was going to do anything I wanted. I’m so beyond thankful for her love, support, friendship and guidance. And mostly, her never ending patience with me. She can sense when I’m struggling on a cake and steps in just when I feel like I’m ready to lose it.

On days that I’m struggling or frustrated that I still don’t feel like a natural lefty, I have to remind myself that it has only been 18 months. There are plenty of days where I’m still sad and my injury is just still surreal to me, but I know that God had a bigger plan for me. I’ve met more special people, gotten more opportunities, and shared my story with more people than I ever thought. I get the chance to show people every day that I’m living proof you can do anything despite your disability. I look a little physically different now, but I’m just as capable of decorating cakes with one hand as I was with two.   

My accident changed my life forever. While it brought me so many struggles, heartache, and sadness, it also brought me a new way of looking at life as well as a determination I didn’t even know I had.

So, happy 18 month “ampu-versary” to me, I can’t wait to continue to show the world what I can do.