Friday, January 5, 2007

TWO shoes!


Today was the first time that Elias got to stand up on his prosthetic leg. It was so exciting to see him standing on two legs! Chase put Elias' shoe on the foot of his prosthetic leg, and when Chase brought it out, Elias was so surprised to see another Elmo shoe. He gave us this look like, "Where have you been hiding this other Elmo shoe???!" It was his first time to discover that he actually has TWO shoes!

Today was the fitting for the test socket, to see how it fits Elias' residual limb. Chase and the crew drew several marks on the socket and made a few modifications until they were happy with the way it fit his leg. Usually the fitting for the test socket doesn't have all the other prosthetic components, but Chase went ahead and put them all together so that we could see Elias stand up using both legs. It was a great moment! Elias wasn't too happy about it though. I'm sure it was a rather scary experience for him, and it also wasn't very comfortable for him until after they made a few modifications. The Elmo shoe factor did help a bit though. (Thanks, Lulo!)
We brought the leg home with us so that hopefully Elias can make better friends with it over the weekend. We'll have to think of some games to play with the new leg.

This is really an exciting step (pun intended) and makes me look forward to getting the final leg in a week or so- just in time for our trip to Texas for Aunt Lizzy's wedding!

Here are a few pictures of our day:

First time with the leg on

Making muffins with Levi earlier this morning

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Truly amazing! I cannot say much more without busting into tears!

Love,
Ami

Essentially Heather said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

He'll be running before we know it! He'll make an excellent addition to the Harbaugh indoor soccer team :-)

5KidMom said...

Wow! I never really thought about what a HUGE adjustment this would be for Elias. The new leg must seem so foreign to him. I am so glad he was sent to the perect family; that would understand these issues. It looks like you were able to find a couple smiles, even through the stress of the moment, when he had his new leg on. I'm sure, with encouragement and time, he'll come around.

The muffin making looks like a throroughly enjoyable experience. 8^)

Anonymous said...

Hey Chase , Maegan , and Elias
Those pictures were soooooo CUTE! I can't wait to see him again ...i want to see him walk .....love you guys!

Your Cousin ,
Gabby
p.s. He looked so happy making those muffins!!