Wow, let me tell you, the hardest thing I have ever done was standing up on those mechanical legs. They are very advanced, all carbon fiber and titanium laced together in there slightly industrial looking glory.
Sitting in a wheel chair for four months shaped my body into a sitting position. All the PT exercises in the world couldn’t stop that. It is just the laws of nature. When you spend most of your time in a seated position, your muscles and ligaments just get used to the idea. Now I have to teach them otherwise with the new legs. When they finally get here to me via ups, yea, my legs are going to come to me in the mail 🙂 I will have to spend a lot of time wearing them with them propped up, stretching out my knees.
Laying up on the couch, with my feet on my folks coffee table? Oh yea, I can do that. Anybody see my xbox controller? Did I mention my folks have a 50 some odd inch HD tv? Doctors orders, mom.
But, I digress…..
Matt Hayden, my prosthetics guru, (there is an actual name for what he is, but I can neither pronounce it nor spell it, so I just call him my leg guy) spent a lot of time on a weekend away from his family to accommodate my schedule. He let us come up on a Sunday to fit me to my legs. He spent a very late nite adjusting the sockets after we left for to go to the Galt House, the hotel he put us up in.
Ah, the Galt House. I love that place. Last time I was there was for a KPCA training meeting. I went on a pub crawl with a work buddy by the name of Mike Smyth down on fourth street. Do you know how many bars are on that one little stretch of street? Me neither, but man oh man I was hung over the next day!
Oops, doing it again…. Back on track, now, Neil…
So, I walked for the first time in four months on Sunday. It was hard, but felt great. It is so much different than normal walking. The advanced technology of the legs help, as I can feel the ground in my residual limbs (that is the PC way of saying my stumps) but it is nothing like feeling the floor beneath the feet I once had. My muscles were a tad freaked out at this new way of doing things, and it took me a bit to get the rhythm right. Once I did, though, it was easier.
Now don’t think I was just trotting along. These were baby steps with much of my weight being held on my upper body via parallel bars. But, they were still steps.
On Monday we came back in for one final fitting. As I said before, Matt had a late night re shaping my sockets. I had one final trip down the bars, and Matt marked the sockets for the final, finished set.
Afterwards, I took a tour of the shop area, where my legs would be made, and met the two guys that would be doing the work, Tommy and Mike. ( I think Mike is his name, me and my memory!)
I found out very quickly that Mike is a motorcycle guy, and we had a twenty minute conversation about bikes and riding. What I am called is a bi lateral below knee amputee, but I could tell right off the bat that I wasn’t an amputee to this guy. I was a regular old Joe that just happened to be missing some parts. Oh, man. That was great! That was the first real regular conversation I had outside of family that didn’t revolve around my condition, or any pity.
We left soon after, my dad pacing in the hall outside the door, not wanting to interior, but finally letting me know he was ready to get home. So, out to the car we went, and home we came.
Now, I will sit and wait in anticipation of that big brown truck, and the package with my hope inside.
C’mon ups guy, hurry up!