Sandra and three other Secret Service agents accompanied her to PT.  The technicians there showed her how to get out of the chair and back in.  Then they took her to the end of a pair of parallel bars.  She declined help and pushed herself out of the chair.  She stood between the bars with her weight on her left leg, the right hung from her body.  She tilted her pelvis enough to keep it off the floor.  It was as if touching the floor with it was some gigantic hurdle for her.

Two therapists took positions on each side of the bars.  “OK.  Swing the right leg out in front of you; let it touch the floor; support your weight with your hands and move it like you are going to take a step on it but support your weight on your hands and just touch the floor with your right leg to see how taking a step feels.”

For the first time they heard what could have been a negative response, “I’m afraid.”  Later they would realize it was not a negative response but a statement of fact.

“You’ll make it.  If something goes wrong we’re here to catch you.”

“You’re sure it will not hurt, split open, bleed?”

She looked at both therapists, frozen in place, her hands gripping the bars so hard that her knuckles turned white.  Her pelvis remained tilted to keep the right leg off the floor as if touching it to the floor might just cause something bad to happen.  Finally after a long pause the therapist on the right said, “I think we need to get Amy here.  She’s so much better at this than we are.”

The other therapist walked to the other side of the room and whispered something to a young woman sitting at a desk.  She picked up a pole with a socket on it much like the one Jaci had on her right leg except the socket was plastic and walked to the parallel bars.  She walked between the bars facing Jaci and handed the pole to the one therapist then she pulled a string on her wrap around skirt and removed it.  She had a pair of very brief shorts on under it.   Her left leg was an artificial leg.  She was an LAK amputee like Judi!  She reached down and pressed a button.  There was a sucking sound.  She took her leg off, handed it to the therapist and took the other leg from him.  She set the pylon on the floor so the socket was just in front of her stump and almost walked it into the socket.  She sort of banged it on the floor as if to make sure it was tight then moved back and made several steps toward Jaci. 

“Now you try it.  See how easy it is?  Just put enough weight on that leg to keep the tip on the floor for the first few steps.  It’s probably too tender for all of your weight right now but that will get better in a few days.”

Jaci gripped the bars, swung her right leg forward, and slowly lowered her body till the tip hit the floor. She winced a little and looked at Amy, almost in amazement “I expected it to hurt.  That didn’t hurt, it just felt funny, like pressure on the back of my leg and in my hip, like my real foot just touched the floor.” 

Amy nodded.  “There are times you will think you still have your leg.  Just don’t forget and try to take a step without the metal one.  You’ll really find yourself on your nose.”

Jaci nodded then continued to move forward and swung her left leg to the front.  She took another step, then another.  Each was easier.  By the time she got to the end of the bars her steps were smoother.  She turned and walked back.  They had her make another round trip and then Amy hugged her before she got in the wheel chair as directed.  Amy took off her pylon, stepped into her cosmetic leg just like she had the pylon and stomped it. She smiled at Jaci, “Just make sure it’s on tight.  It’s humiliating to have it come off and step on a big pile of air.  And it is painful too.”

Amy was about to leave but Jaci called to her.  “Can you stay a minute?”

“Sure.  But just a few.”

“I have a lot to learn, and I need to or I am a, you know, can you really try to take a step without your…  Like you think you still have your real leg?”

“Prosthesis.  That is the word if you want to know.   And yes, you can forget and do it.  I have several times.  Fortunately I haven’t gotten hurt or done it in public.”

Jaci smiled, “That would be a bummer.”

“Unless there was some guy you wanted to notice you.  It really attracts attention.”

“This is going to be hard on Judi.  She really likes the guys looking and she had nice legs.”

“Who’s Judi?”

“My sister, she lost her left leg.  She pays more attention to the guys than I do.  I can take them or leave them.”

“Most of those guys will still be there.”

“Really?”

“Really, most guys want to pamper a woman.  My boyfriend left when I had my accident, my husband knew me from here, saw me in a mall on crutches one day without my leg and offered to carry my packages.  He’s been carrying packages for me ever since.  Sometimes I let him carry them even if I don’t need him to. It makes him feel important.  Guys like to feel important.”  Jaci giggled.

“Can I see your leg, I mean prosthesis.  I mean the one that looks real?”

“Sure, it’s called a cosmetic, the one I have on is a pylon or temporary, it has no knee, they sometimes call it a peg leg, like the pirates wore, but technically a peg leg is for a below the knee amputee only.”  She leaned on the parallel bar, removed the cosmetic leg and handed it to Jaci, took the pylon and put it on.

Jaci felt it, touched it then looked at the socket, inside and out, “What keeps it on?  I’d be afraid it would fall off.”

“Suction, you saw me step on the pylon and smack it on, so it didn’t fall off.”

“Then how do you get it off?”

Amy leaned against the bar, reached down and hit the valve, there was a noise of air being expelled then she pulled the pylon off.  “It’s that easy.”

She balanced on one leg, took the cosmetic leg from Jaci and handed her the pylon.  “I need to get this back on and get back to work.  Let me show you how.”  She stood the leg in front of her and almost walked into it, then stomped it twice.  “You see, just like putting on a pair of boots that are tight.”

Jaci looked at the pylon and handed it back.  “Thanks so much, can I ask, what happened to you?”

“Drunk driver.  I was riding a motorcycle.  The leg was nearly off before I got to the hospital, they couldn’t attach it.  Some of it was missing, the knee was totally destroyed.”

“Ouch, that would hurt.”

“You?”

“A guy with a gun shot me in the knee.  My kneecap flew out on the floor.”

“Double ouch.  If I can I’ll visit you some day.”  She walked away on her two legs, carrying the third.

They moved on to another part of the room handed her a pair of crutches and she was shown how to use them.  They showed her to do leg lifts to help build strength she would need to better handle the prosthesis.  About an hour later she was on her way back to the room.

While she was gone Mitzi woke.  This time they were able to get her to realize that her legs were gone and she began crying quietly.  She was beginning to come to grips with the situation.  Finally she asked, “Where are the girls?  I need to see them.”  She turned and saw Judi and the empty bed.  “Oh God, she wailed.  Are you lying to me?  Where is Jaci?”  The only way they could quiet her was by giving her another shot. 

The noise woke Judi.  She too processed the missing leg better this time and broke into quiet sobbing.   After a while the sobbing escalated and they gave her another shot and she want to sleep.  She and her mother would take more time and there would be more medical risks.  Jaci returned to find her mother and sister sedated.

The First Family: Chapter 1 – Introduction

The First Family 18: Jaci Faces the Problem Head On

The First Family 20: Sandra Learns Why the Attack Was Made