The big day finally arrives! Out of the Spica!

After months of healing the big deal finally arrived. It was time to remove the spica cast and get our little boy back! Mom and Dad were in high spirits. Diego's mood was subdued. He stayed that way until it was time to remove the cast. It took about 15 minutes to make the necesarry cuts to remove the cast. Once he was out, an amazing thing happened. Diego's mood immediately changed from subdued to elated! With a huge smile on his faced he started kicking his little feet. This went on the whole day. He was also more vocal. It was amazing! He was a totally different child! A much happier little boy! We were all very happy.

Next we visited Orthodics to get Diego's leg braces. Over the past two weeks the orthodics team made braces to fit Diego's new hip. Once fitted Diego was able to support his own weight while standing (holding moms hand). It was hard to believe that after 3 months in a body cast Diego was able to stand so soon!

That evening we spent it holding our baby boy. For months all we ever felt was a hard bulky cast. Now that we could actually feel his little body it was all we wanted to do! Yes, we were very happy to have our baby back :)

2 Months Later..almost

April 16th will mark two months that Diego has been in a spica cast. We'll just say it's been a long two months. Before the cast he was very mobile; easily getting around the house by bouncing on his butt. Now he wants Mom and Dad to carry him everywhere, fetch his toys, hold him while he watches tv, ect. It can be exhausting! As the weeks went by we learned his favorite positions for sleeping, playing and eating. On March 23rd that all changed. That day Diego went in for day surgery for a planned replacement of the spica cast. The new cast didn't provide any more freedom than the first; however, several annoying changes were introduced. For example, the rear cutout for the Diaper is much lower making it harder to change diapers. The new cast is much tighter to his body making it harder to clean. The most significant difference is in the height of the cross bar. The new one is much lower; we can no longer prop him up on his toy car as shown below:

You can see in the photo that we used his walker as a table. This worked out great because it gave him a little play area. We had nothing else to replace this setup so our laps became the next best thing. That gets old quick.

On April 20th the cast gets removed. Woohoo! That week we will live in the hospital while Diego goes through intense physical therapy. As much as we love this hospital and all they have done for Diego; it is not a comfortable place to live. We'll make do as always :)

Check back here to see how things are going!