And #3 is off!

Well, it's off for at least a few weeks, until we get him in the next one.  It was a little hard for me to want to take the cast off this time, because he had a little bit of a hard time last time.  It seemed like he missed the tightness of his cast when we took it off, and he seemed happier when we put it back on.  Also, we talked to Shriner's anesthesiologist, Dr. Csontos (pronounced "sahntoes"), and she agreed with us that we should wait on putting a new cast until he's completely healthy.  She is THE best anesthesiologist ever! She has done wonders for Russell.  Her opinion that we should wait wasn't a surprise at all, but it meant that we didn't have to remove his cast yet.  We could just leave it on until it got closer to his new casting date.  However, we want to work on muscle strengthening, and it just felt like the right thing to take it off.  Plus, life is just easier with it off.

So, we turned on a movie for Russell, while he laid on the floor and Scott cut it off again with the tin snips.  Russell wasn't bothered at all.  It took about 30 min to get it off (this one was really thick!!) and Russell was so excited to have it off.  He didn't seem bothered at all!  He's really uncoordinated, and wobbly, and keeps pointing to his tummy and saying "Tummy!".  It's the cutest thing to watch.  He also got a bath tonight, and he smells good for the first time in about 6 weeks!  He had two red spots on his lower back, but they don't look bad.  It just looked like that must have been where they anchored the cast this time.  It was funny to watch him going up the stairs.  He's used to crawling up, because with the cast he can't get his leg up high enough to walk up, but he realized that he actually could lift his leg up high enough now, and so he could walk.  But he couldn't make up his mind which one he wanted to do, so he ended up with this awkward half-crawl-half-walk thing.  It's so amazing how quickly they adapt to new situations!

Ready to get it off!

Scott started at the lower part of the cast.  I was there to help Russell's hands stay away from the tin snips, but as you can see, he was pretty relaxed and into his movie.  I didn't have to hold his hands until we started cutting the top part by his chin.

Tyler was our photographer-and he got this great photo of Scott using the tin snips close up!

Breaking him free!

Freedom is close at hand!

"What? That thing was removable this whole time?!"

The empty, lonely cast.  It amazes me everytime I pick it up after we've cut it off, just how heavy it is!