Post CastTina & Post Hawaii

Post CastTina

A week and a half before we left for Hawaii, Leah got her cast off (CastTina). It was a much anticipated day at our house. Even the sun was shining in her honor.

Leah and CastTina's last picture together. Leah looks happy; CastTina is looking old, battered and extremely worn out.

I was very nervous for the cast removal process. I broke my ankle as a teenager and remember the cast removal process very vividly. It was not a pleasant experience, even as a 14 year old. I could only imagine how my already timid and very emotional Leah was going to handle it.

Ready or not, here we go! (I gave her a book from the doctor's office to help distract her... yeah right!)

First they use a plastic like saw blade to cut through the fiberglass cast. It is very loud and vibrates. I warned Leah about both of those things this morning.

Surprisingly (no, SHOCKINGLY), my baby handled it quite well. She is not crying here- she did this laughing/whining sound the whole time.

The nurse sawed all the way through the cast.

Leah had to sit up to investigate once the loud noise was over.

Then he used a tool to pop open the cast.

Next came the scissors to cut off the inside sleeve underneath the cast.

And that was it! We are CastTina free for the first time in 4 weeks!

What came next brought tears for the first time- the nurse had to straighten her leg out and after being bent at an angle for 4 weeks, she had "stiff leg" as he called it and to straighten it out was very, very painful for her. After that, she cried out in pain, "Put my cast back on!"

While we waited to go down the hall for X-rays, Mitch dug CastTina out of the trash. We had to say our final good byes.

The two halves of her put back together.

The was the bottom of her, where Leah's foot was. Yes, absolutely disgusting.

If you ask Leah where CastTina is, she will say "We threw her in the garbage." And we certainly did.

Her follow up X-rays looked fantastic. The doctor said it healed perfectly, and that the broken leg actually looked stronger now than the non broken leg. She has no restrictions and does not need physical therapy.

Leah's long, yucky toenails, terribly dry skin, and true, live toe jam. I never really thought toe jam existed until I saw this. Well, folks, it's real. And really, really disgusting.

I of course had to carry Leah out to the car- there was no way she was walking. Without CastTina, she felt completely helpless.

Our first order of business when we got home was to cut those toenails. I do not tolerate long toenails on my children.

Secondly, I let my baby have a bath! We have been talking about a bath for 4 weeks and I promised her that the day she got it off she could soak in the tub for as long as she wanted. She has been suffering through sponge baths (or Sponge Bob baths as she calls them) for 4 long weeks and has been a trooper about them. Lexi has been doing them too, taking one for the team. (I have given her one or two baths when Leah isn't around).

Next on the list was to grease her up with plenty of lotion. Her poor skin was so dry on that broken leg. For days afterward, the skin would peel off in chunks.

Next, I made her stand up. She did not want to do this. At all.

She still stood as if she had her cast on.

And she hated it.

She said it hurt. I'm sure it was still a bit sore from the stiff leg, and I know she felt so unsafe not having the comfort of the cast there.

I rewarded her with M&M's for her efforts.

She crawled around for the rest of the day. It was deja vu of day one of having her cast on.

But later that day, we went outside and guess who wanted to ride her "helicopter" bike?

She's healed!! Look at her go!

She can't be in that much pain if she can ride like that!

It was a long first few weeks after the cast was off. She didn't walk at all for the first day and a half. Then she walked with a very noticeable limp for the first 3 weeks. The limp got less and less noticeable with each week after. She would randomly keep reverting back to walking like she had her cast on and we'd have to remind her to "walk normal." Some mornings she'd wake up and say "My leg hurts!" Now, almost 6 weeks later, she is running, jumping, no limp and is back to normal (which was hard to imagine when she got her cast off). Hooray!

Post Hawaii

Leah had made noticeable improvements in her walking while we were gone in Hawaii.

Like I said in my last post, it wasn't all that hard to come home from our vacation. Even though we had a fantastic time, by the end of the trip, I was missing my babies like crazy. 12 days is a long time for a mom to be without her kids. We got home around 8:00 p.m. the night we flew in and all of the kids were in bed and asleep. As soon as we unloaded all our luggage, I had to go upstairs and peak in on all the kids and give each of them a hug and kiss. Chloe woke up and I was able to visit with her. I was so anxious to talk to the other kids that I was like a kid on Christmas Eve going to sleep that night. I couldn't wait until morning to see them all.

The next morning did not disappoint. When the kids woke up, they all came and climbed into bed with me. They were as happy to see me as I was to see them. It was a happy reunion and it was so good to be home.

The next evening after dinner, we gathered to the kids to open a few gifts that we had brought them back from Hawaii.

The girls loved their Hawaiian bracelets.

I knew Chloe would love her purse. She loves bags of any kind!

Ben picked out this hair pick for her, too.

The babies loved their coconut purses, too!

They loved them so much that they slept with them for the first 3 nights straight after we got back.

For whatever reason, I didn't get any pictures of Mitch's gifts, but he loves sharks, so we found him some shark teeth in a bottle, a pirate telescope, and a pirate card game.

They all loved their Hawaiian clothes. Mitch perfected the Hawaiian "Hang Loose" sign quickly that was on his t-shirt. The babies have a little bit of growing in to their dresses to do....

We had also promised the kids that once Leah got her cast off that we would go swimming as a family, so the Saturday after we got home from Hawaii, (June 1), we made good on that promise. A local community center has a fun pool with a water slide (big one and small one) and spray park all indoors. The kids had a great time. We stayed for 3 hours.

I forgot to get a picture in their swimming suits, so here they are, still wet, right after they got done swimming.

At the community center, they also have a rock wall. Mitch and Chloe took a turn at this before going home as well. Chloe has rock climbed before and is quite good. This was Mitch's first time. He got scared and would quit at this same spot every time, but we were proud of him for trying something new.