Cast Removal!! 8/9/16

We literally had to pin her down to get it off.  She was freaking out!

After hearing, in the beginning, that Katie's cast could be on for several months, we were very excited to learn that we could get it off as early as 6 weeks!  We called and set up an appointment with an orthopedic specialist in Raleigh while we were still out in Utah.  

The doctors in Utah had told us that Katie could walk on her cast if she wanted.  We tried and tried to get her to do that while she had it on but she refused to even try for the most part.  The best we got was crawling and bum scooting.  She did get pretty good at those by the end of six weeks though so it was nice not having to carry her everywhere. 

When the time came to get the cast off, I was a little skeptical it would be healed and wanted to wait awhile longer.  We were told that the doctor would be able to xray it in the cast, though, and if it wasn't healed they would just leave it on.  Not so.  They wouldn't do that and said they needed to cut it off to xray and if it wasn't healed they would just re-cast it.  I hated that idea and wanted to just leave it on a few more weeks, but I was persuaded it would be fine so they went ahead and cut it off.  Katie screamed her head off.  So did Colton.  So did Zach.  It was a bit of a mess.  In all fairness, the saw they used was SUPER loud.  The x-ray'd it and said it was mostly healed and that it wasn't in any danger so they could leave the cast off but if she wouldn't walk on it after a few days to bring her back in.  I was really nervous but she didn't want to at all at first and it still seemed to hurt her.  Finally, after trying many different methods, I was able to bribe her to try walking with the grocery cart.  She did pretty good the first day, and then regressed.  

I implemented some water therapy of my own and took her to the pool several times the next couple of weeks and got her kicking around in the water.  I really think it helped!  I also used some more bribes and encouragement and gradually she got better and better!  We figure it took about 2 months for her to be back to normal with no limp.  We're so glad we are done with that saga and hopefully we don't repeat it anytime soon!

The night her cast came off.  Standing all on her own!

Taking a few steps!

8/17- First time venturing out for a walk!