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.