Freedom!

Oh what a fabulous Tuesday morning.

Sam was strapped in for breakfast in his seat one last time.

Yep, he still liked it.

The morning went on as usual and he went down for a nap.
Until this lovely message showed up on my phone and I realized that I needed to wake him him and head out!  Hallelujah!

The boy didn't appreciate being woken up.

He got strapped up into the big car seat and we were off!

(thankfully he cheered up quickly)

I have to admit, I was so nervous.  I had this fear that we'd get to the appointment, do the x-rays, and have the dr tell us "sorry, it hasn't healed as well as we'd hoped, he's going to need to stay in the cast".

Boy that would have been frustrating.

Not the end of the world obviously, but we've all been so excited for it to come off that it would have been hard to hear.

Thankfully that wasn't an issue.

Lincoln tagged along-which worked out great, because he is good enough with the camera that he was able to get some pictures for me.  He insisted on wearing his green striped shirt so he could match Sam.
They spent a few minutes hanging out-Sam scurrying around sideways as he has become so good at over the past month and a half.

First up was x-rays, which Sam hates, especially because I have to hand him off to a stranger and wait outside.  No fun.
Though you can still clearly see where the break is, the ortho was thrilled with the healing, said it looks as great as we could have possibly hoped for!  Yes!!

And then it was time.

I worried about how Sam would do with the saw.  When I laid him down on the table and he started freaking out, I worried even more.

First-the bar came off.

Turns out he wasn't bothered by the saw, he just didn't want to lay down.

No, the phone is not a toy, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  He was fine and dandy after that.  And he only made one phone call-to Aaron, so it was ok.

Cutting and rotating,

then a little more cutting and rotating....

And then...off it came!

Yes, it was pretty gross looking in there.
The good news is that it didn't smell anywhere near as bad as I expected!
I was terrified that a couple of diaper leaks may have left, um, grossness where I just couldn't reach down inside the cast to appropriately clean things up.  But our efforts were worth it and there were no nasty surprises!  One little tiny red spot on his left hip, about the size of a quarter, where his skin was irritated, but that's it!  There is a bunch of skin that has built up on the left leg that will probably take a couple of days to slough off, but everything under the cast was so much better than I expected to see.

Lincoln had to try it on for size

and kept the bar to bring home to show the kids.  And to use as a sword.

Freedom!
Sam felt so tiny after getting that thing off, not to mention so much lighter.

Getting back into the car for one last ride home in the big seat.
His legs of course automatically straddled back to where they have been for so long.

You can see the flaky skin here

 He wasn't quite sure what to do with himself when I put him on my bed.  

 The dr mentioned that it might be a week-or longer-before he is back up and around, feeling confident and strong enough to try walking again and to really feel comfortable without having that cast surrounding his entire lower half.

It didn't occur to me that sitting would be scary to him until I tried to sit him up.  Any time he'd been "sitting" since this thing has been on, he's really only been propped in an upright position-he hasn't been able to bend at the waist for a long time.

 He obviously wasn't thrilled at the idea in the beginning.
 He wouldn't even try to sit in the tub, he just laid down in the water.  But my goodness, he was SO happy to be in the water!

One very long bath later, he smells fabulous, is much happier, and even gave sitting up a try for a minute.