2nd Summer

Fall is definitely here in and we are all just loving it.  Fall is my favorite season and I have waited 6 years to experience a true fall again.  With the summer coming to a close, I wanted to share some of my thoughts and experiences from this summer that have to do with a Eli’s prosthetic leg.

Eli had his amputation in May last year.  His leg was still healing and then he didn't get his first prosthesis until August of that year, so that was a different experience unto itself.  Of course this year Eli was your typical toddler, who happens to love water, so it was quite a different experience.

When we were still in Florida I knew that I wanted to sign him up for swim lessons.  I had a lot of anxiety about how that would go.  I had these images of me taking his leg off and then EVERYONE staring at my baby as we got into the pool.  Well we ended up moving sooner than we thought and I signed him up for lessons at our new YMCA.  I was nervous and fearful, but I wasn’t going to not let him do something that I knew he would love because of my fears.  Needless to say, we ended up doing two full sessions and he LOVED it!  I cried to Jered after one of his first classes because I truly had never seen him happier – this kid loves water.  And my fears?  As usual, they were all for nothing.  I am sure there were some stares, but I never noticed anything.  I was just enjoying the experience with my sweet pea.  We were surrounded by amazing people and I never felt any negativity whatsoever.  There were a few points in the class that we just adapted what we did compared to everyone else.  For example, at one point in the lessons some of the kids would stand on the ledge and jump in and Eli would just sit and jump to me.  Also, at the end of the class everyone would go to a shallow part of the pool and play and the babies/toddlers that could walk would walk around, but Eli would just sit and play by me.  These things didn’t bother me at all and certainly didn’t bother E.

We live about 15 minutes from Lake Superior now and we went to the beach several times.  In addition to the water, Eli loves playing in the sand.  Figuring out what to do when his leg got wet was something I wasn’t quite sure about.  Eli did get a new leg in May, and so at first I thought I would just let him wear his old leg (with that darn lift on his left shoe) and get that one wet.  But pretty quickly I saw how much that old leg (primarily the lift) slowed him down and I decided I didn’t want to use it anymore.  So we usually went to the beach in the morning and then left before lunch time.  I would change him before we left and then when we got home I would put his leg outside to dry.  He would eat without his leg and then go down for his nap.  By the time he got up his leg was dry.  Actually, it only took about 30 minutes for the leg to dry.

Eli’s prosthetist Jay gave us the first leg he made Eli (that didn’t fit exactly right), but of course there was no foot (that is on the leg he wears now).  So he put a black rubber stopper on the bottom of it and said we could use it as his swim leg.  Well Jered and I both did not like the looks of this thing and did not want Eli to have to wear it in public.  We did put it on him sometimes when he just played in his baby pool in the backyard.  This was handy, because when he was done swimming he could put his dry leg on right away.

All in all, we figured it out and nothing was too big of deal.  More than anything it is just kind of a hassle and takes some advance planning.  I am hoping next summer Eli can wear his old leg (potentially the one he is wearing now or a new one) and that can be his water leg.  That would be the ideal situation. 

I think next summer he’ll be aware of things a lot more and so I am just praying that we have more positive experiences like we have had this summer.