Her First (and Second) Prosthetic!

Sydney finally got her leg! That was an exciting day! She was so excited about it all and even told me on the way home what color she wanted to paint the toes. The prosthetist was pretty amazed with her as well because she pretty much jumped up and wanted to walk the second he put it on her. Within a few minutes of trying it out, she was walking on her own(a little bit wobbly looking, but she was doing it!)

It didn't take long though before I realized that her foot didn't fit into any of her shoes though and I think she was getting a little frustrated as well because the leg was too long and she kept tripping over it.  I called back in and came in to have it adjusted. We saw a new prosthetist because ours was out of town and I really liked him. Because of a couple reasons combined, we switched prosthetists and I am really happy we did. We have loved James! Below is a picture of her foot before he shaved it down to fit into her shoe. When he did that he also noticed that her Croc shoe she was wearing was giving her blisters and offered to bend it outward for her so it wouldn't give her blisters. He did that and added some blue stuff to it that made it slippery and not as likely to rub and give blisters. I love that he did that! Needless to say, I really liked him and the extra effort he gave!

After shaving down the foot to fit into her shoes, he ordered her a new foot that was smaller so she didn't have to have the funny looking foot ( although it almost looked artistic and modern which was kinda cool but also a little funny). It took about a week for that to come in.
We came in a week later for physical therapy and to have her new foot put on.
The physical therapist thought she was doing really well! That first time we went she spent the entire time helping her to turn her foot inward. She was twisting her foot outward because she was struggling to walk with the new stiff foot and so she would turn her foot outward and walk on the heel. She did really well though and within about 3 days she was walking with her foot forward.

 After physical therapy, we headed downstairs to meet with the prosthetist to get her new foot. James, Our prosthetist had actually noticed at our last appointment that Sydney had been hyperextending her knee so he made a new leg that went up over her knee and helped with her hypertension. I thought that was so awesome! So he did a check socket that day and then he had the leg ready THE NEXT DAY, so we came back in the day after that for the fitting.

 Ignore the tape on the top of her prosthetic in this next picture. I put that on there anytime she wears pants in hopes that it won't rip them a quickly.

 Sydney got a bike for her birthday right after having her surgery, so her first experience with a bike was with her prosthetic leg. She took to it quickly and is now a bike riding pro!:)

 Here is one more picture at her second physical therapy appointment. I think she was a little bummed that she only had to have 2 appointments. She loved physical therapy! It's basically an hour of play time with new toys!

This girl is amazing though you guys! She has overcome all obstacle with a smile on her face! She does so well with her leg. I honestly think she walks better now, especially since she had such a leg length difference before her amputation and now she doesn't have that. We love this little girl!:)

The Cast Finally Came Off! (Caution: graphic pictures of Sydney's stump)

CAUTION! Graphic pictures of her stump are included in this post!

It took about 6-7 weeks from the time she had her surgery before she was able to get her cast off. That was a really exciting day!

I was really expecting that when the cast came off I was probably going to be emotional and possibly cry or at least tear up, but there were no tears or even hint of tears. It was a little surreal, and it definitely looked different because I wasn't used to it, but really, I was surprised at how comfortable Joel and I both were. Probably because, just like with Sydney, we had been preparing for it the whole time too. The biggest thing I remember was how bad it STUNK!lol I was so excited when we finally gave her leg a bath! The stitches looked pretty good too. Dr Carroll said that her stump looked good and that things were healing well.
At first it looked like Dr Carroll had given Sydney a piercing.. turns out it was just a piece of glitter.lol

Sydney took it well too. Because we had shown her lots of pictures and videos of kids/people with stumps and prosthetics I think she was pretty prepared for that moment. The days leading up to her getting her cast off Joel and I kept asking her if she was ready to see her stump, then we'd follow it up with "you're sump is going to be so cute!" It was funny then after she got it off because she kept saying how cute her stump was! 
After seeing Dr. Carroll, we headed over to Prosthetics and Orthotics to get some compression socks. These were to help with swelling and also help protect the healing incision. She freaked out a little when our prosthetist had to put the sock on her, but overall she did really well.

She hasn't really taken to walking on her stump (and still doesn't like to, she just hops everywhere if she doesn't have her prosthetic on), but I got a video of her trying to run while using her walker.

It felt like an eternity before she finally had her first fitting for her leg. They did a mold with cast material. I think the first fitting was about 3-4 weeks after getting her cast off and then she didn't have her leg for another 2-3 weeks after that. During this time it was really hard to go anywhere. Sydney has 2 younger brothers and so it felt like I had 3 babies that couldn't walk during this time. That being said... her are the pictures from her first prosthetic fitting.

The next step was for her prosthetist to do a check socket- which is basically just a clear plastic socket that they make and then look at it and make markings of adjustments that need to be made for the actual leg.This happened about 2-3 weeks after her first cast-mold fitting.

He brought in her little foot for her to check out. She said it was weird because it didn't have big hero 6 on it. She had chosen big hero 6 as her fabric for her leg and I think she was disappointed and confused that it wasn't on her foot.lol

Time in Her Cast

After being home a week, Sydney really turned a corner. I'm not sure if it was just the initial shock of it all was finally over or if it was just all the meds that had given her such intense mood swings, or maybe both, but I was really grateful when that was mostly over!
She was finally her happy, optomistic, independent self again! We went to the gardens here in town and she pretty much ran the entire thing with her walker!

Shortly after her amputation was Shriner's Walk for Love. We had some friends join us, and it was a fabulous day! As you can see by the pictures, we all had such a fun time!

That night, we clebrated Sydney's 4th birthday.

 Sydney did so well with her cast on. In fact, I spent most of my time telling her to slow down. By the time her cast came off, there was a massive soft spot at the bottom of it because she had walked on her cast so much! This girl amazes me!

 We also had a little mini birthday party for her, and having her cast on didn't slow her down a bit, she totally kept up with her little friends.

 Here you can see the duct tape we attached to the bottom, along with a little card board. This was in hopes that the cast wouldn't deteriorate more and the soft spot wouldn't grow any bigger.

She did so well with her cast. She didn't complain almost at all and just adapted to it. Kids are amazing like that. Now, looking back, I am so glad we did her amputation when we did because of the fact of how well she has adapted.

The First Few Days at Home

 These next few pictures sum up how the next 3-4 days went once we got home. Lots of sleeping, not wanting to eat and crying.. It was really nice when she finally started to pull out of that mood.

This was shortly after getting home from the hospital (the poor girl needed a bath). A friend had brought over this sweet little cake and I tried to get her to smile with the cake, and it turned into tears, so we gave up on that one.

About 2 or 3 days after getting home she finally was up for trying out her walker. She was pretty shakey and off balance still though because of meds and all that though.

So like I mentioned, the first week really was pretty rough, but after that things really turned around. We were so lucky to have lots of wonderful friends and family that checked in on us to see how she was doing, brought gifts, and played with her (which was SOOO helpful to me!). We were really blessed by our friends and family during this time and could really feel our Heavenly Father's love through the people around us during this time.