TAYLOR MORRIS

We are constantly leaving one appointment and heading to the next. One appointment was to order new prosthetics for his upper extremities. Just like the legs are a work in progress with a few falls here and there, the arms have had their glitches from time to time.
Exhibit A: Chocolate milk
This was one of the first glitches. We were still inpatient at the hospital. Both Taylor and I went to the nutrition room for a late night snack. When we opened the fridge and saw it was stocked with chocolate milk. Score. Everyone loves chocolate milk! Taylor light up and hurried back to the room to enjoy. He worked his butt off to figure out how to work his freshly new prosthetic hand. After trial and error he discovered a way to get the cap off the bottle of milk. Right before Taylor was about to make the last turn of the cap, the bottle slipped out of his hand; spilling milk everywhere…. All over the table, bed, my tennis shoes, the floor. The look of discouragement splattered Taylor’s face. That discouragement turned, to failure, to anger, to annoyance…
Exhibit B: Styrofoam cup of soda
Since the first glitch of chocolate milk there have been many other occurrences; one including our road trip with a Styrofoam cup of soda. We were heading back to the apartment from having lunch with some friends. As we were leaving the restaurant we grabbed a large ToGo cup of soda for the road. We were about 5 minutes on the road when Taylor grabbed for the soda. In his defense he had the soda clenched in his prosthetic hand and was bring it up to his mouth when I cautioned him to be careful. My thought process was, his hand was going to malfunction and squeeze the cup too hard. With the cup being Styrofoam and holding 64 ounces of fluid, I could see the cup being squeezed so hard that the top part would disconnect spilling soda everywhere in the car. Well that is not exactly what happened. Taylor must have already thought this scenario out because by this point he which his hand from the open and close function to the rotate function. I must have made him overthink things because as he was telling me, no worries and he had things under control, the hand started to rotate… The rest was history. Taylor tried to correct the rotating action but he must have been too flustered because the 64 ounces of soda spilled all over the center console, all over the floor mat, and all over Taylor’s shoes. Taylor and I both probably didn’t say a word for 3-4 minutes as we bobbed our heads (like ooookkkk that just happened). We broke the silent by saying, wasn’t even that thirsty…what radio station do you want to listen to. We were stuck in traffic for a solid 2 hours, so that didn’t make the stickiness or smell of the soda go away but we laughed as we dumped soda out of Taylor’s prosthetic foot. You have to find humor within the glitches.
Exhibit C: Ranch
As we were telling our friends the hospital about Taylor’s mishap with the Styrofoam cup over pizza one night, Taylor experienced another glitch; right on cue. We were laughing again about having to dump soda out of his shoes, when Taylor reached for the Ranch dressing. He tried to squeeze a small amount for dipping, when his hand started to squeeze a little too hard, then harder, then harder… by the time we were able to pry the dressing bottle out of his hand, half of the bottle was pooling on his plate. Taylor and I both looked up from the overwhelming amount of Ranch to connect eyes with our friends. Instantly we all started laughing. Another story for the books.
Exhibit D: Salsa
Just a few weeks back I left Taylor to finish his last appointment so I could go get my hair cut. A quick hour later I walked into the apartment to find a glass jar of salsa smashed over the kitchen floor. Looking beyond the mess on the floor, sat Taylor at the table enjoying some nachos. Well tortilla chips with melted cheese.
Taylor began to explain, I was hungry and was able to get the chips out and open them… open the bag of cheese… microwave everything… and I almost had the salsa. I grabbed it out and when I went to shut the door my hand opened up. Sorry…
It’s not a huge deal. I would rather have Taylor try to do more things on his own with a few glitches here and there, then have flawless days with me doing everything. In the beginning it was frustrating and trying at times. And it still is when I got to clean up the glass from the salsa jar and slice my finger open. But you have to roll with the punches. You have to take the glitches one at a time. You have to try to find the humor and laugh off the glitches, knowing this isn’t the first and it won’t be the last glitch.

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