It's kind of hard to see but I can successfully hula hoop with my nub(: -lauren(: This is Chris putting on the sleeve which will act like a suction cup when the socket is on. Pretty cool. Lauren explained it feeling like a silicon ball with tiny little beads compressing down. Then some markings and measurements. The casting material. And lookey there a perfect cast of Lauren's knub for the first socket!!! WE CAN'T wait until Thursday stay tuned!!! Waiting at Chris's office for him to cast Lauren for her first leg. Lauren is always getting hit on but I may have to nix this one he is really creepy. He had His hands all over her. His name is Tbone. He had the same below the knee ertle procedure on the right side to. The final appointment of the day was with Lee Carmen of Pain Solutions. Most of you that know me know that I have nothing but amazing things to say about Lee. He has been such a huge blessing in all of our lives and extremely instrumental in getting Lauren to where she needed to be physically before her surgey and now keeping it all in line and working it to its fullest potential. Lauren not only trust lees work but also his opinion. Lauren and him had talked a couple of months prior and Lauren flat out asked Lee if he thought amputation was the way to go. Thank GOD that He can tell it like it is in a way that comforted both Lauren and I. He explained to Lauren about her body and how even at 16 it was breaking down because of all the compensating Lauren was forced to do to just get through day to day life. If this is how things were in her youth what was life going to belike for her body 5-10 years from now. We will never be able to fully thank him for all he has done and will forever continue to do!! Xo This was the first time Lee had seen Lauren since after the surgery. He talked with Lauren about the huge importance of getting all the muscles working to there fullest potential and the exercises and amounts that she would be required to do. Lee keeps all Lauren's muscle In balance through stretching,conditioning and adjustments. Today Lauren was concerned about one technique that he uses on Her to keep her hips in line. It requires Lee to pull on Lauren's legs to get the the hips in better alignment. How would he be able to do this with the limb missing. Was he going to have to pull on her knub? So Lee went down by her right leg to where Lauren's limb would have been, he pretended to grab a hold of the phantom limb and then craked a hilarious joke about doing a phantom limb adjustment. We all laughed SO hard! Here is a re-enactment of the "phantom adjustment". Appointment #3: the surgeon Dr. Hahn had Sara his MA take out the 30+ stitches. Lauren was so anxious about how this would feel. Previous experiences with the "black stitches" had not been so pleasant. But she made it through with some distractions from Chris and me. She also got some awesome news. Chris felt she was doing so well that he would with Dr. Hahns ok plan on casting her in two weeks and fitting her with the first prosthetic two day later !! She is thrilled!! Appointment #2: PT with Julie. Today was the day to hook up Lauren to the bio feedback machine to see if we could get Lauren to point and flex her phantom foot. This is so important for Lauren's prosthetic because those muscle that we use to point and flex need to be really strong. The problem with Lauren is that little foot that we had amputated has NEVER been able to flex back. It has always been fused. It does not know how to. So in order to try and get lauren to understand how to do that she had an electrode in the front and the back to monitor even the slightest contraction. That in turn shows up on the meter so that Lauren gets visual feedback from the machine that she is actually making it work even ever so slightly. Repetition and practice is the only way to get her brain to put it all together. So today was a BIG doctor day. Lauren and I had 4 appointments today. First one was at 8 with Dr. Franklin who is Lauren's Physiatrist. What's a physiatrist? That is a doctor who has a specialty in nerve,muscle and bone. They treat the injuries or illness that effect how you move. Dr Franklin reviewed where Lauren was, her pain levels any questions and we also looked at Lauren's medicines to make sure we had some good plans in place to get off as much as possible with the exception of Tylenol and the nerve pain medicine Neurontin. There was also a lot of discussion of the next couple weeks and the importance of getting the incision site to stay scare tissue free. The only way to accomplish this is to massage the heck out of that area. This and techniques to desensitize that area will be crucial to continue with a successful prosthetic fit! Stitches come out tomorrow and I am now feeling terrified to be honest. Hopefully getting them out be to painful(; -Lauren(: |
Who's keeping you updated?This blog is written by Debbie Sepanske (mother)& Lauren Sepanske (daughter). We both wanted to create the blog to keep our friends and family updated. We also started it to hopefully inspire and help others going through the same situation(: Categories |
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