Brace Buddies
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My dog understands me. He understands when I tell him to sit, fetch, lay down and shake. I spent a lot of time training him when he was a puppy. All that hard work really paid off! My dog also understands how I feel. We both wear special braces. We are brace buddies!
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If a person or animal has an arm or leg that needs extra support, a brace might help. Before my dog got his brace, he had a hard time playing fetch. Now that he has his brace, he never slows down!
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I wear a brace too. It's called a prosthosis. I was born with something called proximal femoral focal deficiency, or PFFD. That means that one of my thigh bones, called a femur, did not grow all the way when my body was forming inside my mom's tummy.
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Here's a picture I drew of myself. Do you see my femurs? I colored them in blue. One femur is long and the other is very short. That is why one of my leg's is longer than the other.
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Hey, wait. I look like a superhero!
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My prosthosis is a brace that fits onto my short leg with a foot attached to the bottom. They call it a prosthosis because it's a brace (orthosis) and a foot (prosthesis). It is also called a 'foot over foot prosthesis'. Every day, I put on my prosthosis and then I help my dog put on his brace. Once we have them strapped on, we're ready for fetch!
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