A few weeks ago while we were down in Lexington, Reni was cast for his first set of 'stubbies'. His current set of prosthetics (just like his first set) are full length legs, but without articulating knee joints. They make him taller (which he likes) yet it is difficult for Reni to be a typically active three year old; one who likes to climb up and down from furniture, go up and down the stairs, get and up and down quickly from the floor, and navigate playground equipment. You and I with healthy knees use them thousands of times per day and probably don't even think about it. But for Reni, it's not that different than walking around on stilts, and when he falls, I always gasp and wait to make sure he hasn't gotten hurt. He's tough, but it doesn't seem out of the question that in the right circumstances, he could fall and break a wrist or arm.
We could invest in legs with knee joints as he's bordering that developmental age where they begin to transition BAK (bilateral above knee amputee) children to knee joints, but we've been told they would require intensive physical therapy to learn, not to mention, we think he would still need a set of stubbies for around the house. Soooo, we opted to just go for stubbies right now and wait another year or so on 'legs with knees.' Given the cost, it's not exactly something you buy two of at the same time.
Complicating matters is Reni's extra tissue on his left leg. We're opting not to remove it surgically because it has bone, muscles, and some supporting ligaments. We're hopeful it might be useful for a robotic knee when he's fully grown. The reason we say it's complicated is that Chris, the prosthetist, isn't designing a simple socket to fit over a stub (like he can do for Reni's right leg). It was interesting to watch and hear him hash out the design while we discussed how we wanted these stubbies to function for Reni.
The first step in casting is to roll on the silicone liner sleeve and wrap it with saran wrap to keep it clean. Then a thin sock is pulled on over the plastic wrap.
During the entire casting process, Reni was as quiet as I've ever, ever seen him. Chris wrapped his legs in a quick-setting plaster cast. And marked it with a special pencil to note the front/center part of the socket.
After it dried, he slipped it off and repeated the process for the other leg!
About thirty minutes later we were all done and so we stopped by for our traditional photo with Mike outside the therapy room. Reni is mimicking his pose!
I can't really express how excited we are to finally be getting these stubbies. You might recall how two summers ago Reni had devised his own "shoes", slipping plastic drinking cups over his stumps to protect them on concrete and rocks. Alas, he's gotten to heavy for those, but these will be the 'real' deal and give him way more comfort and freedom than those cups ever could provide!
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