Amped

Three weeks had passed since that morning when Doctor Gerrard had told Nancy of the two unhappy choices she had for curing her destroyed and destroyed knee. She could choose amputation of the leg above the knee or she could choose to have her leg shortened thus creating severe mobility restrictions. In the end, with Brett's input and support, she had chosen to have her leg amputated. Officially, she became an amputee 2 ½ weeks ago.

It was a Monday in mid-September and the reincarnation of Nancy as an attractive, fit, vivacious, 35 year old into an attractive, fit, vivacious, 35 year old amputee was beginning. She was being discharged from the Hospital and Brett, daughter Tara and son Scott were the welcoming party for their now crippled Wife and Mother. The kids had been excused from school and brought flowers and a small box of Mom's favorite chocolates. She was seated in a hospital issue wheelchair as per policy. When the papers were signed and Doctor Gerrard had given her a hug, the kids wheeled their Mom to the car.

Nancy was dressed in a loose, maxi style, brown, yellow and orange Indian style skirt with a low cut strapless top. On her foot she was wearing a brown, conservative slip-on with a 1" heel. This was one of the costumes that she had worn when her and Brett had experimented with the amputee "look" the weekend before her surgery. (see,"Getting to Amp", "The Last Walk") That seemed like a lifetime ago and in this, their new reality, it was.

As soon as the car stopped in the driveway, the kids got the wheelchair from the back and set it up, ready for Nancy's transfer. She took a few bounces on the car seat with her right half thigh to get it turned outward. It was easy then to swing her left leg around and out and pull herself up by the door jamb. Beaming at her son and daughter, she braced her right hand on the back of the car seat and her left one on the door frame. Then she hopping around 180 * and lowered herself into the chair which was quickly whisked backward by Scott. Tara retrieved Nancy's new, hospital issue wooden underarm crutches and closed the car door.

While Scott and Tara wheeled their Mom into the house, Brett grabbed Nancy's bags and the aluminum walking trainer that he had signed out from the Rehab Centre. Nancy was supposed to be up and mobile for at least 2 hours a day and if she got tired on crutches, she was to use the walker.

Inside, Nancy was wheeled to the kitchen counter where place settings were laid for the four of them. Brett had helped the kids buy a bunch of goodies from the local Deli so they had a "Welcome Home Mom Brunch" ready. Nancy was helped on to her stool. She was able to hook her left leg on the rung under the weight of her left hip. That took any pressure off of her stump which she was able to limply hang by letting it fall off the side of the stool.

With the Nurse's advice, Brett and Nancy had decided to not let the kids see Mom's stump until she got home. By then it was reasoned, the initial bruising and swelling would have passed and the half thigh of Nancy's right leg would be looking more like a shortened leg than a bundle of bruises, colours and swollen, puffy flesh.

Nancy sensed that the kids were dying with curiosity to look at what remained of her leg. Hanging, as it was, off the stool's side was perfect for the "show and tell" she was preparing to deliver.

"Just slow down you two," she chided with a big hug to her chest of the both. "Let me pull my skirt up first."

Nancy revealed her half thigh, stuffed tightly into a flesh coloured cloth pocket. "This is what my "stump" looks like. That's what we call it, 'my stump.' See how it's inside this pocket? That's one of the special bandages I need. Now gently pull that off. See this other bandage? It's just like the ones you guys have had on when you had a sprain. OK, let's unwrap that. There. There is what's left of Mommy's leg." She lifted it out to the side and gently placed their hands on it. "Can you feel that? See, it doesn't hurt Mommy any more. Really, it kind of tickles when you pat your little hands on it."

There was hardly any bruising and the swelling had disappeared. Her suture line was perfectly centered across the neatly rounded bottom of her stump. Where her sutures had been were distinct dimples that would, like the evident scar tissue fade in time. Dr. Gerrard had told Nancy that the Surgeon's work was outstanding in her case. Always good, it seems, special care had been taken to ensure that her stump would eventually be well shaped and almost invisibly sutured.

The kids were mute. Brett was standing back watching the scene unfold and he found himself holding his breath. First, he was fascinated with the look of this curvy, round, stuffed pocket hanging from Nancy's right hip. But he was also fascinated with the gentle way that Nancy was introducing her kids to a crippled Mother who forever would be different. Clearly these moments would have a large impact on how the Family adjusted to Nancy's new status as an amputee. Seconds passed before Scott asked her if she could move it.

"Sure I can, watch this." With that, Nancy waved her stump, rotated it, pawed at the kids with it and even gently poked it in to Tara's tummy. The kids gently rolled their hands around the end of Nancy's stump.

"Is there a bone inside?" Scott asked.

"Yes Honey. Squeeze gently here. Can you feel my bone moving in there? It's that bone that help me move it around like that."

"Well, at least it's not gross Mom," Tara commented before she launched into Scott asking him where the lunch stuff was.

That was Brett's cue to begin putting the buns and salads and cold cuts on the counter. It was also the point where the kids seemed perfectly content with what they had seen and it didn't seem such a big deal. No doubt there would be more talk necessary as the two discovered what their Mom couldn't do anymore or as well as she used. But Nancy was relieved that this first encounter between her children and her amputated leg seemed positive.

Dropping her skirt, the kids began chattering and helping.

"I've kinda liked feeding the pets while you were away Mom," said Tara. Not to out done, Scott spoke up about taking the "yucky garbage out" and cleaning up his room.

Nancy caught Brett's eye and smiled and gave a big wink and mouthed a kiss. She adjusted herself on the stool and said, "Let's eat. I'm tired of hospital food."

After a leisurely lunch when the kids asked all sorts of questions about pets, cleaning, rides to Soccer and stuff like that. But for all their interest in their Mom's new condition, they seemed as interested in their lives and that afternoon's mid-week sleep over with friends. Brett and Nancy both felt that they needed the first night home from the hospital for themselves so had made arrangements to take the kids to separate friends after the "Welcome Home Mom Brunch". Before the 4 of them headed out, the kids asked if she would walk on her crutches.

Nancy had been very active in the Rehab sessions available to her while still in the hospital. The first few days had been murder on her arms but she was now past those aches and pains. Her experience had been with the standard under arm wooden adjustable crutches. One day at one of her sessions, she met a woman who was coming in on an out patient basis who was also an amputee and used the elbow crutch style. It was Nancy's impression that those "fore-arms" as they were called, were more fluid and polished looking and their smaller size made them easier to control while out in public. So before discharge, Nancy had sent Brett on a mission to Orchard Prosthetics where he purchased a black enamel pair of fore-arm crutches. They were so different in weight distribution and balance than what she was so far used to. She got off her stool, hopped around to Scott, pointed to her under arm crutches back by the door and said, "my crutches please."

As much for effect as anything, Nancy made a point of hopping as if to keep her balance. When Scott handed the crutches to her, she again began telling and showing the kids that she was just the same as always, just that she would have a different way of doing things from now on. So she crutched around the living room hall and kitchen. Returning to her stool and the kids' watchful eyes, she stopped, put her hand on the counter and did a 360 twirl.

"Wow, can I try that? was Tara's reaction. Of course the crutches were too tall for her and Scott when he tried, but Nancy promised them that when she picked them up at school tomorrow afternoon she would adjust them.

As the kids began getting organized for their sleep overs, Nancy spoke. "This is the first time that you kids will see how things will be different from now on for us all. I need you both to load your own bags in to the car AND I need you to load my wheelchair in too. And if I've got a bag, which I don't today, but when I do, I'll need you to carry that too 'cause my hands are needed to help me walk now."

The afternoon passed and the kids were dropped at their friends. Brett had hardly driven a few blocks when Nancy asked him to pull over at the next corner and stop. "I said I was going to pick up the kids tomorrow after school so I guess I better have a bit of practice driving with a different foot. Move over Buddy!'

The two moved to trade places. Nancy right bounced her stump again and pulled herself up and out of the car. She reached for her crutches then thought better of it. She just held on to the car and hopped around to the driver's side. There she squared up to the seat and lowered her bottom. She found that by pushing with her left foot and wedging with her right arm, she was able to swing her stump around and on to the seat. Then she lowered her weight and swung her left leg in to the car. With the door shut, she twisted to her left slightly so that her left leg was within easier reach of the gas pedal.

Brett climbed in the other side. Looking over at Nancy's lap he had a stutter step reaction to the sight of the stump of Nancy's amputated right leg swallowed up in the soft car seat. With the smoothest of movement's, Nancy moved the car out on to the road. She braked a few times, and tested the position of her driving foot and she drove around some of the back streets in the area.

"I think all the emotion of today is hitting me Honey. I need some fresh air and exercise so how's about we go for a walk down at the lake? After that I would like to pop in to "Bishops" for a bevvie before heading home. I need this fresh air and exercise because I'm planning on being awake long enough tonight to kiss and lick and suckle all over your body. These past three weeks without your skin next to mine has been hell I'll tell you."

With the awareness of an experienced amputee, Nancy had thrown her walking shoes into the car. Parked now at the north end of the Lakeside Promenade, she swung her left leg out the driver's door and began unbuckling her sandal. Brett was captivated by the sight of Nancy's back facing him but a half thigh of a right leg still facing forward in the chair.

"Force of habit throwing both these in I suppose," Nancy chuckled as she threw the right shoe into the back of the car. "I wonder what happens to all my right shoes? I know at Rehab they focused everything at me on becoming a prosthetic user. Until then though I'll bet we can find some extra floor space in the cupboard by putting all my right shoes in a box. Later! Here, give me a hand up and grab my crutches please." She reached her hands up and let Brett pull her up and out of the car. She took a couple of hops and fell forward on to his chest.

"I love you Baby. And I suppose it's selfish to say that now that I am these "damaged goods." But you know I have always loved you and I just do now even more." Nancy looked up into Brett's lips, licked her's and drove a kiss onto his mouth.

Brett clasped his bride hard and pulled her into an ever deepening kiss. She leaned into his chest and raised her remaining leg as she swooned in his arms. It took a minute or so for the two to realize they were standing beside their car in the middle of a large parking lot. Nancy was gently placed to ground and she hopped and adjusted herself before Brett handed her her crutches. "I guess these will be our new travelling companions for the rest of our lives baby. I surely don't see you as "damaged goods" Honey. I look at you as the one woman in the world whom I love and want to be with forever. I do so dearly love you too."

As to be expected, the pace was relaxed as the two wandered the boardwalks and paved paths that meander along the lakeshore. Her maxi skirt largely made her one-leggedness difficult to notice and the few people about at the time of day didn't give the freshly amputated young woman and her attentive man friend a second look.

Nancy commented on how this walk was so different from the one they last had that night before her amputation. (see "The Last day on Two Legs") They talked about "holding hands" now that Nancy's hands were going to be pretty occupied all of the time. Brett placed a hand on top of her hand that was gripping a crutch handle and followed with it as it swung her crutches forward when her old leg would have done the job in the old days. He laid a hand squarely but lightly on the small of her back and quite enjoyed the sensual movement of her hips. It was most difficult when he placed his arm onto her shoulders. The closeness required to make this position work interfered with the movement of her crutches. But the position they both enjoyed the most and the most difficult was when he placed his hand on the top of her stump and ever so gently clasped it as it hung inertly under her hip.

Turning back towards the car, Nancy began again thinking of the kids. "Tomorrow when they come back, I think it's important that I pick them up at school. And when they get home, I promised them that I would adjust my crutches so they can crutch around. Maybe that will give me a chance to practice on the fore-arms too. Later, when it's dinner time, I would like you and I to do it all together. I'll use the Trainer if I get tired but I think it's important for them to see me doing all those old normal things. From what I've seen so far though, I'm thinking they might even pitch in with cleaning.

So it was that Nancy and Brett found themselves alone in the quiet house. They both knew of their fatigue from this watershed day and they both knew of a simmering desire that had been building all day. They both were looking forward with great anticipation to the renewal of their robust and vigorous love life together.

Nancy had also become aware of an annoying throb where her amputated knee used to be. This wasn't the first time she had experienced the Phantom Pain so common after amputations. It was something, if it happened, that built up as the day passed. She was well armed with pain killers from the hospital but had been using them only as a last resort. Tonight she wanted to see if the soothing manipulations of Brett's fingers and tongue would bring her some relief.

Crutching in to the family room, Nancy collapsed into the large over stuffed sofa. "I am so beat Honey and I want you so badly. Come here and love your wife." Brett moved in beside her left side. Handing her a large tumbler of Gran Marnier on shaved ice he reached over and placed his hand on the rolled up sweat pant leg that shrouded her right half thigh.

"Oh Gawd, that's what I craved. I want you to caress my stump with your tongue and your teeth and your lips. It's aching a bit Honey from a long day of still getting to know that there is no leg there any more. It needs attention and you're the attention that it needs."

Sliding off the sofa to his knees, Brett moved to unfold the knotted pant leg. His hand reached up into the pant and found her fresh bandaged stump inside the pant. He began a feathery, comforting touch of her stump. While leaning into his wife with the most passionate of kisses he began dragging the pant off of her stumped leg. Humming and gleefully groaning with pleasure, Nancy arched her back to allow him to pull all her pants down over her shortened thigh where they crumpled on the floor around her left ankle.

"Oh my gawd baby, you are soaking wet! Methinks you don't just like this kind of attention, methinks that you love it and crave it." Brett gradually shifted his lips and kisses and tongue away from her stump to her dripping orchid of love. Her left leg was wrapped around Brett's back. It was frantically pushing him closer to her dripping pussy. Her round, luscious stump was spread wide. A sense that Nancy was legless on her right side was definitely there.

They both intellectually understood the reality that she was "legless" on her right side. It was at this moment though, on his knees in homage to this woman he adored that he also understood on an emotional and visceral level the reality of her oneleggedness.

"Oh my, you are SO wide Nancy. This little stumpy when it's spread sure opens you up. I love this!" He buried his lips and face in her pussy while he smeared his left hand with her wet juices and used it as a lotion for his caresses and light massage of this new love toy she had brought home with her.

"Take me to my bed Brett. I want your body beside me again."