Just Keep Swimming: March 2012

I love all your comments! I'm so sorry to leave you all hanging on how everything went and is going with Dylan's new leg. I had good intentions of posting shortly after we got it, but we were ENJOYING IT TOO MUCH!! That and life has been a bit crazy the past week and a half. But seriously...Dylan LOVES his leg and doesn't want to stop. I can't even tell you how happy this makes Bryson and I.

Okay, so the morning of the appointment, Dylan decided to start trying to stand on his own. It was so out of no where and SO exciting to see! He just decided all of a sudden to stand. He would actually balance himself on his stump and foot pretty well. I didn't get a picture of it before he was too tired and couldn't do it anymore, but the picture of him holding the wall was the closest I could get to what he was doing...just imagine him not holding the wall. :) The video shows it better.

The appointment was great. My Aunt Lori was in town visiting so she came with us and I'm so glad she got to be there. Dylan didn't hesitate getting his leg put on this time. I think he remembered what it was and couldn't wait to take off walking. He kept saying, "Walk, walk, walk" and grabbing peoples fingers to help him walk. It was really cute how excited he was. OH, we also brought Kaden to this appointment. We try not to bring him to doctors appointments because he is a TALKER and usually one of us ends up not hearing or being able to talk to the doctor because we are busy trying to keep him quiet. But we figured this was a good appointment to bring him to because there wasn't anything super important that we needed to talk about and we thought it would be exciting for him to be a part of Dylan getting his first new leg. And he LOVED it! He was so excited for Dylan!

Here is a cute video of Kaden telling us what Dylan's leg is called. Such a smart boy! See how willing Dylan is in the background?

I will spare you all the same pictures of getting his leg on (they're about the same as the last post, just a different leg). But here are some cute pictures of him walking with his new leg. How cute are the pictures and video of Kaden trying help Dylan? Love those boys!

Jason had to make a couple adjustments on the leg a couple times. So while we waited, Dylan liked to play with the inner liner and try to put it on. He kept saying, "Leg! Leg!" and "Walk, Walk, Walk!" because he was so anxious to walk!

Kaden kept him entertained for a little bit by rolling him around on the doctor's stool. :)

We also kept entertained by taking lots of pictures...surprise, surprise. :)

We had to learn how to put Dylan's leg on correctly. It's pretty easy and doesn't take long at all.

Dylan tried standing on his own at one point and did pretty good considering he JUST started trying to do this earlier that morning.

We really love our prosthetist, Jason, and are so grateful for what he has done for Dylan.

So after our appointment, we headed home, but first we grabbed some lunch before Bryson had to go back to work. While at lunch, Dylan's leg fell off, which was funny. I'm sure there will be many more funny stories in the future of his leg falling off in public places. We were laughing at the fact that we had a leg sitting on the bench next to us...no big deal...our child's leg fell off. :)

We came home and the day continued on as normal. Dylan was just fine keeping his leg on. He played with it on, crawled with it on, we walked around with it, he climbed with it on...It was like that leg had always been there.

And then it fell off at one point...and Dylan looked down and said, "Uh oh!" and was eager to get it back on.

Since that first day...he has just amazed us each day with how well he does with it. Like I said before, it really is as if he's always had it. There was no learning curve...he just took off with it. He doesn't ever complain or whine about it being on or during the process of putting it on. He's never tried taking it off like it bothers him or anything. It really is amazing. He's cruising along furniture like crazy, he's so confident on his new leg. It's so awesome!

And three days ago he started standing all on his own again and would actually stand for quite awhile all by himself! He was SO proud of himself. It was exciting to see. He kept looking down at his feet like, "Look what I'm doing!?!"

When Bryson came home we were showing him what Dylan could do and we were so excited and then out of no where he TOOK TWO STEPS ALL BY HIMSELF! We were shocked! This is all just FOUR days after getting his leg. The next day, Wednesday, I got him to take three steps. He was all about trying. He usually only got two steps before falling, but he keeps getting back up and trying. I think he'll be walking solo in no time. I can't believe it! While I was at a meeting on Wednesday night, Bryson was able to get a little video of Dylan trying to take some steps. It's the best we have so far.

Whenever you ask Dylan where his leg is (in the morning or after naps, before we've put it on), he will crawl around until he finds it saying "Leg! Leg! Leg!" and then brings it to us to put it on. He loves his little leg. It's a part of the family now, that little leg. :)

We had an appointment yesterday again with Jason to do some final adjustments on his leg after a week of using it. He made it a little tighter to fix the falling off problem and made it a smidge taller. We noticed at this appointment that Dylan has self corrected his totally turned out right foot when he walks (you can see it in the laundry basket videos above). That was a worry of ours because he had gotten so used to standing like that on his one leg, but he's walking totally normal now. Kids are AMAZING!

Anyway....to say we are amazed by Dylan is an understatement. He is one determined little boy. In less than a week of having his new leg he was standing by himself, trying to take steps, and just not letting anything stop him. We love that about him! We couldn't be more happy with his progress. We are SO proud of him and know that he will only continue to amaze us.