3rd and Final Fitting!

Yesterday, Hannah had her 3rd and final fitting for her new prosthesis! Again, I just can't say enough about the care Hannah continually receives at Shriners Hospitals for Children all of which is at no cost to patients and their families. We are extremely blessed.

Earlier that morning, Hannah shared with me that she did not want to get a new leg....she wanted to keep her current leg until she got older. It seems that any time Hannah's prosthetists make an adjustment to her prosthesis or whenever she gets a brand new one, Hannah goes through a difficult time of transition. So when Mr. Bryan (Hannah's new prosthetist) put a new leg on her yesterday, I wasn't too surprised by Hannah's reaction. She whimpered, clung to me, refused to walk, and pleaded to be held. It was heartbreaking. My eyes welled up with tears as Hannah cried and refused to walk for what HAD to have been at least one hour!! But in all actuality, it was only about five minutes (it sure felt like MUCH longer than that) and Hannah was up and walking. :) She's such a trooper. She still wasn't very happy about it, but she was doing it!



This is not yet the final product as you can see the inner workings of the leg. This fitting was to watch Hannah walk and see what adjustments needed to be made to make the prosthesis fit as perfectly as possible for our sweet Hannah. In the pictures, you can see how Hannah pointed the foot inward a little as she walked. Mr. Bryan made a few adjustments to correct that! They really do amazing work. (In the below picture, Mr. Bryan is making an on-the-spot adjustment using a special tool. Other times, he took the prosthesis to the adjacent lab to make adjustments.)

Hannah was also reevaluated for physical therapy. She did a GREAT job. The physical therapist does not believe Hannah needs any additional therapy. She told us a couple things to work with her on at home, but other than that, she was very pleased with Hannah's progress. And Joshua!!! On, what an amazing big brother Joshua is! Hannah was very reluctant to do many of the physical therapy activities, so Joshua did them first to show Hannah how it was to be done. He is such an incredible blessing. Between Joshua's help and bribing Hannah with m&m's, she completed the majority of the activities. And after such great work, both Joshua and Hannah left that therapy session with toys given to them by the physical therapist!! :)
(In the below picture, Mr. Bryan is measuring and tracing Hannah's left leg so they can try to make her right prosthetic leg as close to the the same measurements as possible. She is holding the new Barbie doll the physical therapist had just given her! :)


Hannah is scheduled to receive her new leg next Tuesday!! We are all very excited (well, I don't know about Hannah, but I am :)!!!!!