Clubfoot Update

On Wednesday, J had an appointment at Shriners for his clubfoot.

J was born with a unilateral clubfoot - when he was 5 days old, he was placed in his first of eight casts to correct his left clubfoot.  After 8 casts, he was placed in a Ponseti brace, that he wore full time for 4 months.  He continues to wear the Ponseti brace at nights.

I went to the doctors appointment feeling fairly confident that the doctor was going to schedule J for a heal-cord release surgery.  As J has started to walk around more with support (while holding on to furniture), I've noticed he turns his left foot out.  He also kind of swings his left leg around from his hip to take a step.  I assumed that his heal cord had tightened too much and would prevent him from walking correctly or comfortably.

At the doctors appointment, J's doctor was so kind and reassuring.  He stretched out J's foot, moved it around, and was beaming.  He said that his foot actually looks really good!  He said that J is actually able to get his foot past neutral - something that I didn't think he was able to do (the goal is that J will be able to stretch his foot 10-15 degrees past neutral).  Because of the clubfoot, his heal has a little extra baby fat, making it hard to really gauge where "neutral" is.  He also said that as J starts walking more and is bearing more weight consistently on his foot, the tendon will continue to stretch.  And, the best news of all, no surgery this summer!  He said that for clubfoot patients, it's better to have a tendon that's a little too tight than one that is too loose.  For that reason, he wants to wait to make any kind of decision about surgery.  And weather we do surgery now, or when J is 2 or 4, the outcome will be the same.  So, no rush.  He asked me and J to come back end of October to re-evaluate, but he was very positive about J's progress and prognosis.

One of my students was also born with a unilateral clubfoot - and, just like J, it was his left foot.  He was also treated at Shriners.  He's such a good sport - he let me pick his brain for a good 10 minutes about his life with a clubfoot.  He said that he has never felt any different, his foot has never held him back, and he can run really fast (but he doesn't like to run) - all comforting things for a mom to hear!

So, end of October we'll head back down to Shriners and see what the doctor has to say.  Between now and then, we're really going to work hard on getting J walking (he has very little interest right now in walking because crawling is faster) and keep stretching out his foot.