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