She's walking!

    It was emotional watching Amaya take her first steps (again) today. We've watched her take "first steps" severals times over the years. These were special because her legs are the same length for the first time and her left femur is correctly aligned. It's like a whole new leg! And this may be the last time we see her take "first steps." Amaya's physical therapist wants her to take it slow so that she learns how to walk on her "new" leg correctly and safely. Dr. Nelson had said he wants her to use a crutch or two for the next month which will give her that time to learn to walk correctly.

    Her therapist was very happy with how she's doing. She said considering she hasn't used her leg in three months she's doing "amazing!' That shows how amazing Amaya is and how great her physical therapist is!  Amaya made so much progress in the thirty minutes we were there. I'm excited to see how she does over the weekend! 

These were her third and fourth steps. 

I didn't realize she would have Amaya walk as soon as we got

 there so I didn't have the camera ready.

She taught Amaya how to walk using one crutch. Her left leg was a bit shaky and felt a bit like it wanted to buckle. Amaya won't be doing that for a week or so (depending on how she does). For the time being she'll be using two crutches so that she can get a normal gait pattern. Once she's got that then she can with to one crutch. 

Sorry it's such a short video, I had to get out of the way.

This is how Amaya will be walking for the time being. It's called the four point gait. 

She moves her right leg and left crutch then left leg and right crutch. Amaya will be walking like this as part of her homework. In fact her therapist wants her to walk down the hallway at home a couple times a day. She also wants her to do it outside on the sidewalk to build endurance and practice. She said it takes about 5,000 repetitions before her brain will fully learn and adopt it. 

Stepping up and down. When she had to rely on the left leg it was more challenging but she was pretty steady so that was good. We can already see some strengthen coming back to her leg.

Knee bends while standing on left leg

Squats for the first time. These will help build straight in her left leg. 

They were challenging but she did great! 

At the end she had Amaya rest and did some stretches and measured her range of motion. 

It was at 143 so she'll keep an eye on it to make sure she doesn't lose much. The therapist said she may lose some range of motion in her knee as she begins to build muscle and strength in her leg, so it's important to keep up with those exercises.