The Little Lion - Rory's Story

There have been several times this month when I've thought about posting an update, but so much has been going on that I decided it would be best saved to the end of the month for a July round-up! Prosthetic Update I'm sure the question most of you are wondering is 'how is Rory getting on with his prosthetic?' It's certainly the first thing people tend to ask us.  Truthfully, it's still slow progress. I feel a little guilty for the fact that Pete and I had quite a high expectation that once he had his leg, he'd be off; standing, walking, ticking all the boxes. Especially with how well he was adapting to crawling and getting about on just his stump. But the reality is somewhat different. It's confusing for him. It's not natural and he hasn't worked out yet what this leg will enable him to do. He's much quicker, comfortable and in control of himself on his stump. But that is completely fine; we're going at his pace and we have to remind our...

Hi everyone! This post doesn't actually have anything to do with Rory's medical journey or development relating to his leg. But earlier this week Rory turned One, and that's just as a big a milestone as any in our book! Looking back on this video of Rory's year was so emotional for Pete and I - we shared a few tears when we watched it on the morning of his birthday, even though I'd seen it progressing hundreds of times as I was putting it together! It's not until we went back through these clips as a full finished piece that we were reminded just how constant our trips to Sheffield have been, and how much time Rory has spent either in surgery or in bandages in his very short time.  We always knew Covid was going to throw us a curveball, but what a crazy, terrifying, amazing, wonderful, heartwrenching, fun, adventurous, exhausting year it's been! And while it's been the worst year of our lives it's also without a doubt been the best. There is so much ...

 As many of you reading this will already know through social media, this week we were lucky enough to be called in to pick up Rory's very first prosthetic leg! A moment we've looked forward to for a long time. From the day we were told by the Plastics team that the damage to Rory's growth plate was too severe and that he would need to rely on a prosthetic in order to walk, everything has just been a countdown to this moment. And as much as the last six months have been exhausting in so many ways, the last few days have shown that the hard work is only just beginning.  One thing is for sure; all of these milestones dates are going to be easy to remember; his amputation happened on my Mum's birthday, and the day we received his first prosthetic was my birthday! Now if we can just get him walking by Pete's birthday (December) to keep everything nice and simple... Light-heartedness aside, we are enormously grateful to the team at Blatchford for all their hard work crea...