Tiger Legs

The long-awaited day arrived. July 15th. Noted by a paper-chain countdown. Told to everyone in the last 10 days. Finally here. Almost 5 months post-surgery. A red letter day indeed.

Noah has been so excited to walk, run and ride bikes. Today he got to walk and enjoy one more unexpected bonus. When Noah tried on his test legs a couple weeks ago, we noticed a dramatic increase in his height so Noah was hopeful that he would be taller than Emme with his tiger legs. Sure enough. And an added excitement to the day is that he is now also taller than Alexa. This was huge to him! His sisters are delighted for him. Thankfully, they aren't competitive with height and thankfully Ian, who is holding firmly to his position as tallest child, is still a bit taller. Ian might have had a harder time getting passed up.

Noah walked with the parallel bars at Hanger Clinic and with a belt for Michelle to hang on to for support.

Then we raced to his physical therapy appointment with Dana in Beavercreek. In between appointments we took the tiger legs off. He will wear them a bit at a time as he adjusts to them. More on that later.

When we tried to put his legs back on to do gait training, the inserts would not go on. Ack! A quick call to Michelle and we learned that his legs had swollen from his time in the legs at Hanger Clinic and to just layer several of the socks for now. Whew. Noah did amazing with the walking. Hopefully this video will post and you can see him in action.

Noah's thighs are about 2 inches different in length. So his right leg has extra pieces on the bottom to make it longer to match the left leg. Dana noticed it was now too long which effects his gait, so Michelle got us back in to Hanger Clinic at 4:00 for a quick fix. For now they put a lift in Noah's left shoe, so he is 1/2 inch taller than he will be in a week. They are ordering a shorter piece for his right leg.

Tonight when Noah put his legs on to show Dad, he wanted measured. Oh the joy to jump 8 inches in one day! Quite a growth spurt!

So the plan is that today Noah was to wear his legs for an hour in the morning and again in the evening. Then each day he is to increase the time an hour in the morning and evening until he is wearing them all day. He is to take it easy on the tiger legs for now and we are to check his skin carefully every time he takes them off to make sure he doesn't develop any sores. Noah is very sensitive to pressure and the blue liners he wears under the socks, inserts and tiger legs are very constricting by design. Which means that for all of the joy and excitement Noah had today, there were also many tears. We have been through this with the liners he has been wearing since surgery and it is rough. I am not sure if this will just mean he takes the adjustment period slower and it takes longer until he is wearing the legs all day or what. Please pray that he can adjust well to the liners and legs and that we will have wisdom on how best to help him through this. 

And that was Day 1! Much to celebrate!