June 10, 2010

It's Thursday afternoon and my friend, Ruth, is at the sewing machine. She came from California to be with me for a few days and as a side product of her visit, to get started quilting. So, yesterday, with another friend, Johanna, we went to the quilt shop, Ruth bought some starter stuff, and she is now starting. Yea, Ruth.

And the big news from yesterday was a visit to the prosthetist to see if he had turned the cast - taken the week before into a temporary shell - that will then be used as the prototype for the carbon fiber thing (I forget the correct name for it, but I'll come back to that), that Daisy will wear, and to which will be attached a bit of titanium leg and a magic foot. This plastic shell looks like a very large water bottle, (the liter kind, not the gallon kind). So prosthetist, Bobby, comes into the room with the plastic water bottle thing attached to a bit of titanium attached to a pink plastic foot, for which he looks for a sneaker. And he is going to put this on me and I am going to walk in it??? Oh dear! I have gotten use to this wheel chair, where I can move quickly and turn on a dime. Son and daughter were with me for this visit. Daughter saw her job as that of recorder of the event - moving pictures, still pictures. Son saw his job as mother care-taker and advocate. I tried very hard to look as if this was just an ordinary event for me - put clearly it wasn't and he saw that right away and became concerned. So there were two of us in this room just a little anxious.

Hangar Prosthetics has a room with a walkway and associated ramp with the bars on both side for trying to walk. So, I rolled up to the top of the ramp, was positioned in my chair facing the walkway and Bobby slipped the prosthesis thing on me. Then I was told to get up and stand on it - and walk on it. Fit was not perfect - Bobby made adjustments. Titanium piece a little too long, and that would be adjusted later. After a galumph on the walkway - maybe two or three galumphs, some adjustments to the water bottle in between - we were done. Well, not quite done.

Question is, what do you want the finished water bottle to look like? It will be made of a carbon fiber material. Can be done in black, can be done in a couple of different skin colors. For all I know it can be done in purple. I didn't ask. You can also have it tattooed. Apparently a design from a tee shirt can be built right into the carbon fiber. There are lots of Steeler and Penguin design prosthestics in this town. I'm not doing Steeler or Penguin. For now, I'm just doing designer black.

Now what? This prosthetic needs to be built, based on the water bottle and Bobby's idea of the "right" foot. It will be ready for me in rehab on Monday. So, I'm checking back into the hospital on Sunday, around 5pm to get ready for the next part of this adventure. I was just on the phone with the rehab place trying to negotiate a room with a view and a bed by the window. I also want to be able to go to the cafeteria on Monday morning, and then go right to PT. Don't want to spend time sitting around while they figure out what to do with me. (And I need to check out on Tuesday morning to attend one of the granchildren's graduation - Maeve from the 8th grade).

This morning was Liam from 5th and I was there (with friend Ruth - nine 12 year olds graduating from a Waldorf School). Last night was grandaughter Ali-Beth from 8th grade - but there were not enough tickets for all of us and accessibility not easy. Three graduations in five days.

So - back to rehab on Sunday - new leg on Monday morning. Next part of this whole adventure!! More blogs coming.