Learning to Walk Again

11 Weeks Post Surgery

Jordan has been wearing the gel sleeve, doing his leg lifts and spent his spring break waking up early to go to physiotherapy.  Some days there's pain and discomfort.  His limb is changing in shape and the prosthesis is feeling too big.  They adjusted his prosthesis in height and he needs to walk with this basic model before they upgrade the style.  Sort of like getting used to the tricycle before learning to ride a two wheeler.  Sometimes the tricycle sucks.  I had to strongly encourage him to keep with his exercises and some days it was a bit of a battle.  We had a few days where the prosthesis went flying across the room and told "I'm never wearing it again and will use crutches for the rest of my life!  You don't know what it's like and how much it hurts!"

Yes.  It's hard.  And Jordan's right.  We don't know what it's like.  So I reminded him that we just want to see him happy, so if he wants to use crutches for the rest of his life and he's happy, we'll be happy for him.  He's the one steering this boat and he can take it in whichever direction he wants.

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

The next day we went back to physio.  He put it on... we held our breath, wondering if he would try.  He swayed, just bearing weight on his new leg.

Then he took some steps while holding onto the bars and gradually added more weight on that side.

The physiotherapist said, "and soon we'll get you doing stairs."  Jordan said, "Like this?"

WOW!  We were so surprised, impressed and proud of him.  It was awesome!  They said that he was ready to begin wearing his leg out and about.  That evening, Jordan was invited to play sledge hockey with the senior team against the University of Manitoba Bison Hockey team who were learning to play.  He walked to the arena with the help of arm crutches and surprised his friends. It was so fun to watch him gliding across the ice, playing with these adults and keeping up!

Jordan is in the centre of the pic

Tuesday April 8th, 2014

This past week, he went to school wearing his new leg and his friends celebrated with him!

We had a few days of spring!  So it was time to pull out the shorts and go for a walk around the block with dad.

The following day he was sore and didn't want to go to physio.  We went hoping to fine tune his technique.  She started with some warm up leg lifts with a weight on his prosthesis and some weight shifting toys.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Physio can be fun!

He was encouraged to slow down his steps to focus on the heel toe movement and slowly swing his leg forward which places all his weight on his prosthesis.  She asked if he could walk without the bars or crutches.....

Look, no limping!

I have to say I had to hold in my super excited shrieks of joy!  Remember when your babies took their first steps on their own and you'd pick them up, toss them into the air and hug them close, feeling so proud of this major accomplishment?  I had this feeling, I just couldn't toss him into the air!
So proud of you Jordan!  What mattered most was that he was proud of himself for the work he did and his big accomplishments this week.

There is no other way to describe this but as a journey.  We celebrate with Jordan and acknowledge  how far he has come.  We accept the bad days and rejoice in the good days.  Jordan is taking this journey one step at a time, at his speed.  We know that whatever he sets his mind to, he will achieve!

Thanks for all your continued support.  We are so blessed.