Update on new legs, x rays, and starting school

It has been a while since I have written and I'm pretty sure she has had 3 legs since I last posted. She got an Eiffel Tower leg, a Tinkerbell leg, and now has a butterfly leg. As you can see by the next few pictures, she really wears out her legs! She was missing the big toe on her foot for about 2 months before we finally got her new leg.

 

 Here she is getting casted for her new leg:

She decorated it like a watermelon.:)

 

This was her most recent x-ray. Her prosthetic was pretty short on her and so that is why it has the 2 cm lift under it. As you can see by the x-ray, her knock knee is slowly getting worse. They are watching it and don't want to do the 8-plate surgery until they have to.They will wait until it starts hurting or until it gets so knock kneed that they have trouble fitting a prosthetic on her.. The longer they can wait, the better because then there is less of a likelihood of having to do the surgery twice.

  

There was a mix-up with the fabrics for her new leg. We brought a Hawaiian style fabric in for her new leg, but when we got there her prosthetist said that her leg fabric got mixed up! Luckily it was mixed up with a pink sparkly butterfly fabric or I think we might have had a very sad little girl on our hands! She was pretty excited about her new butterfly leg! She has now had that leg for 2 months and it;s been a good one so far. We went in once to have a little adjustment done because the inside of her knee was being rubbed raw. The prosthetist just adjusted it a little and it's been great ever since.

 

 

Sydney started 1st grade a few weeks ago as well! She's loving 1st grade and has done really well with it. The first day of first grade and Kindergarten I went in and gave a 5 minute presentation about her leg to all the little kids. I went in and basically explained that she has something different about her. She has a prosthetic that helps her walk just like how glasses can help kids to see and braces help kids teeth. All kids have things that make them different, and this is something that makes her different. I then passed around a couple of her old legs so the kids could touch and feel them, and then asked the kids if they had any questions. I feel this helped the kids get their questions and curiosity out and Sydney hasn't had problems with it so far in kindergarten and 1st grade.

This picture is my favorite! She wanted to show me how excited she was for 1st grade!😋

Sometime around Christmas last year, Sydney's prosthetist gave her the sweetest gift! He altered an American girl doll and put a prosthetic on it that matched her Eiffel Tower leg. It was the cutest thing and she really loves that doll!

Learning new things - kayaking, biking, swimming, tennis, gymastics, disneyland and the beach

Since it has been a year since my last post, I thought I would give an update on what she has been up to!

When we did the amputation we weren't sure how things would go for her, but she has really learned and grown so much and has proven just how much her amputation will not be slowing her down in life!

Sydney really loves gymnastics and is super determined!

The beam was a a little more tricky for her than the other students because she isn't able to move her ankle on her prosthetic foot to help balance. It took a littler longer to figure out, but she figured out her own way of doing it and got pretty good. This video was a little early on when she was still kind of struggling.

At the beginning of the summer we went to Disneyland. That was something I  was unsure about before going for our first time. I had heard that it could be difficult with a prosthetic, but we didnt have any problems. She's still only going on mostly kiddie rides, but she was able to do some of the bigger rides as well and no one batted an eye at her leg.

We also went to the beach twice this summer. She wore her leg all day at the beach. At the end of the day when she took her leg off she had LOTS of sand in it, but she didn't complain once about the sand bothering her.

Sydney had the opportunity to go paddle boarding and kayaking with Wasatch Adaptive Sports this summer and had a blast learning how to paddle board especially! Such a fun experience for her!

She also learned how to ride her bike without training wheels like a pro! We used a balance bike for a few days and within 1 or two tries, she had it down and was riding like a pro!

She also played tennis this summer and loved it!

Sydney and I attended a Big Little camp with Shriners this summer. It's where the patients with limb differences and past camp goers that are now grown get together for an all day camp! It was up at Snowbird and they had fishing and a hike and swimming etc. The kids had a blast! During it they took the kids to go fishing and the parents stayed back and they had a panel with some of the past camp members where they could answer your questions about how things have been for them now that they are older.  That was really great for me to be able to see some of the challenges that will probably come up but also see how great these kids are doing and what great people they have grown up to be!

Two of the "Big" camp members are current Paralympiads and are preparing for the next Olympics which is pretty cool! The young man in the picture below is on the U.S.A. Paralympic rugby team. It was a lot of fun for Sydney to interact with other kids that have limb differences, but I think it was especially cool for her to see these older kids that were just like her. She and I had so much fun!

 On the ski lift.

 On the alpine slide at Snowbird

New Ice Cream Cone Leg and One More in the Making!

New leg time! Her geometric leg was getting a little tight. When they made her leg it was already  a little small for her and she could only wear it with a nylon tights kind of sock, so when it started getting to small there wasn't any wiggle room for adjusting it and she needed a new leg. We went in and had her first casting/fitting. Then about a week later we went in for a fitting.

 We first had to go see a doctor to get a "prescription" for getting a new leg(you have to get a new prescription once a year).

 Sydney chose ice cream cone fabric for her leg.

 After seeing the doctor we went back into the lobby and waited for about an hour and a half and then were told that it was going to be another hour because our prosthetist accidentally broke the check socket and it would take him 2 hours to make a new one.

 So instead of waiting there for another 2 hours, we headed out to the movies and saw Finding Dory! That was a fun little twist to our day!

 After the movie was over we headed back to the doctor's and they did a fitting with her check socket.

 And funny enough! We came back a week and a half later to get her finished leg and she was wearing the same dress as the time before when we went.

It is now a week and a half later and we went in to see the prosthetist to have her leg adjusted and also to see the doctor. We saw the prosthetist and then headed to see the doctor and they did x-rays and when they did that they found out that Sydney's new ice cream cone leg is actually 1.7 cm too short for her(which was a little satisfying to hear because I had mentioned that I thought she looked a little lopsided to the prosthetist, whom we love- don't get me wrong, and he thought it looked alright). So then after seeing the doctor we headed back over to see the prosthetist to get her fitted for a new leg. She'll probably get her new ice cream cone leg in about a week and a half.

First Swimming Experience

Sydney had her first experience swimming since her amputation. She did great! She tried both prosthetic-on and prosthetic-off swimming. When she was just swimming around she liked not having her leg on, but when she wanted to do the little playgound, she preferred it be on.

 When she had her leg on, we just put a sock on with the foam insert and then her leg - all like normal. It all just got soggy and so when she was just swimming around it got heavy and she said it was also falling off a little and so we took it off when she didn't want to do the playground.

She did great though! It's kind of interesting standing on the sidelines watching though because you can see some people staring. That's something I love about kids though, they either don't notice the staring, or if they do, they don't care! Kids are the best! I could learn a few things from that attitude!

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