El Cajon, CA, Letter Carrier Bill Kuehling was delivering mail during a record-setting heat wave this summer, when San Diego television reporter James Koh noticed how quickly he was moving. Then the reporter noticed Kuehling\u2019s prosthesis.<\/p>\n
Recounting that meeting, Kuehling laughs at how the reporter rushed over and said, \u201cYou\u2019re a much better story than the one I\u2019m working on.\u201d Arrangements were made to film Kuehling and he appeared on the local evening newscast.<\/p>\n
Kuehling began his postal career 29 years ago as a custodian in La Jolla, CA. As a letter carrier in 1998, Kuehling noticed a pea-sized lump on his shin and showed it to his doctor, who said it was a fatty deposit. Months later, the lump was the size of a ping-pong ball and tender.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn April Fools Day, I got the call that I had malignant fibrous histiocytoma,\u201d said Kuehling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI laughed and hung up, thinking it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t. Following radiation treatment and further medical consultations, the decision was made in 2001: Kuehling\u2019s right leg would have to be amputated below the knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal was to get back to carrying mail,\u201d said Kuehling. \u201cI love the people and seeing everyone on my route. They\u2019re like family, too. I\u2019ve had the same route for 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuehling understands the ups and downs of working through adversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times, I didn\u2019t know whether I was coming or going. Then I began to realize that a lot of what I was experiencing was mental,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, there\u2019s the physical challenge, but so much is about attitude. My advice: Have a good talk with the man upstairs and learn to roll with the punches. It\u2019s not such a big deal unless you make it one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
El Cajon, CA, Letter Carrier Bill Kuehling was delivering mail during a record-setting heat wave this summer, when San Diego television reporter James Koh noticed how quickly he was moving. Then the reporter noticed Kuehling\u2019s prosthesis. Recounting that meeting, Kuehling laughs at how the reporter rushed over and said, \u201cYou\u2019re a much better story than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nalc-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1627,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}