the real work begins

Today we spent part of our day at Shriners. We met with our friend Mr. Rueben, who is the gentleman who built Jonathan's leg. He had Jonathan try the leg on and make sure everything was perfect. We then had a lunch break and then the work began. We met with Ryan who will be our physical therapist. We will get to know him well as we will be working with him about 3 times a week for the next few weeks.

Honestly, I think Jonathan is happy with his leg, but he is not sure he wants to use it. Bottom line- the leg slows him down. He has to go slow, think about what he is doing and be very intentional with each step he takes. Not fun for a very active 4 year old. At one point today he wanted to be carried and so I lifted him and the leg and noticed a big difference in his weight. So I weighed the leg. It weighs about 4 pounds. That is a lot of extra weight to lug around when you barely weigh 30 pds.

I have no doubts that in time Jonathan will be walking and running with the prosthetic leg. We just have to get him to see it as a good thing and not a hindrance. When we got home today, he got down to push his big dump truck and I heard him say, "trouble, mom" he just couldn't get situated right to play with his truck- the leg was in the way. Off came the leg!

At the recommendation of Ryan, we will be putting the leg on him initially for about 2 hours a day and working up from there. We have some "exercises" to assist Jonathan to gain his new center of balance.

The work is now beginning. Our goal is to get him walking without any aids. When he achieves this goal they will unlock his knee giving him even greater mobility. His prosthetic knee is currently in a locked position for his safety.

On our way home today, Jordan had the brilliant idea that we should go out for Chinese food to celebrate Jonathan getting his leg. It was hot, I was tired, we never did go out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. So, we enjoyed a wonderful Chinese dinner out in honor of Jonathan getting his leg!