Five Feet of Accomplishments

When I last wrote anything on this website, we were in a pretty tough spot. Dan was in the hospital again and feeling miserable. Since then he has improved so much every day that I can hardly keep up with him, let alone find time to update everyone on his progress. Thank you for your patience during the drought. Today we are barricaded into our apartment by a foot of snow, and so with nothing to do and nowhere to go, all of a sudden I have some time on my hands!

So many people commented on the photo of Dan climbing the rock wall. How amazing was that! We busted him outta the hospital that morning, and after 5 days of laying in the hospital bed, he decided that climbing a rock wall sans legs would be a nice accomplishment. It took him three tries - one of which caused me to almost pee my pants and pray that the floor underneath was cushy enough if the harness didn't hold - and on the third try he made it to the top! Dan has a fantastic occupational therapist who consistently pushes him outside of the box, allowing him to accomplish things that don't quite seem feasible.

Soon after the adventures in rock climbing, Dan's stubby legs became ready for use! When he went verticle for the first time, it was a pretty cool moment. Although I'll be honest, we both had to laugh a little because he was so short. We actually laughed a lot. With the stubbies on, Dan's about 4'8''. But his balance is perfect - due most likely to all the core strength he's developed over the past few months in physical therapy. We thought he would have more of a hip flexor contracture from sitting in the wheelchair for so many weeks, causing him to inadvertently bend forward at the hip when standing, but it was very minimal. He does so many good hip flexor stretches in PT, and also can sleep on his stomach now to stretch out, so his hips are in very good condition for standing up straight. He took some great first steps between parallel bars, while his prosthetist made the necessary adjustments to his sockets. When he first fitted Dan for sockets, Dan was seated in his wheelchair. Once he's standing, however, the fit changes a little inside the socket due to the shift in pressure direction. So the prosthetist re-measures everything while Dan's standing and makes better-fitting sockets from there. Dan's now on his second pair of stubby legs and is standing at about 5 feet tall. He's progressed from walking between parallel bars, to walking with a walker, to walking with two canes, to walking with one cane, to walking short distances with no cane at all! Of course these legs don't have knees, so all he's really working on right now is balance and getting the feel of the sockets. Knees will come in a month or so. Every day he walks a little further than the day before. We have to be very careful and almost obsessive about checking his skin after he takes his legs off. The H.O. growing on his left leg is really getting insane, and is about to pop through his skin graft. It is a bony pressure ulcer that is pressing up from the inside, and the additional pressure that comes with putting the leg in a socket is really going to cause some problems once the bone ulcerates through the graft. There really isn't anything we can do about it except take meticulous care of the area. The plan is to eventually cut the H.O. out surgically, but we have to wait about 6 months for the growth to run its course before that can happen.

In other exciting news - the debilitating bladder spasms, in combination with the severe intestinal malfunction - are no more! The second go-around at the hospital took care of these problems for what we hope is the rest of Dan's life. He is back to eating like a king and digesting beautifully. The bladder spasms that left him in tears multiple times a day have completely disappeared.

So we are in a pretty big "up phase" right now, and really enjoying it. Dan's doing better now than he ever has since his injury, and after all the recent setbacks, he's finally making all the progress and the accomplishments that he so deserves.

Dan, our mother, and I wish you all the very best over the holidays. The support that we continue to receive amazes us, and we could not imagine what our lives would be like without such exceptional friends surrounding us. Happy Holidays, and God bless you all.