We have known about Isaac's club feet before he was born. On our 24 week ultrasound when we learned about Isaac's spina bifida, and omphalocele and also his bilateral club feet. To be honest, it was the least of my worries.
Here is an ultrasound of his little feet moving! Even his little toes were wiggling! It is always my proof that he did once have movement!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3EDsQj6yLg
When he arrived into this world and I tickled his little toes, I couldn't help but melt over his tiny, precious, crooked little feet. They were seriously the tiniest feet I had ever seen. They just barely filled Dan's pointer finger.
They were quite prominently clubbed at birth, however we noticed after he had his spinal surgery, everything seemed to relax a bit. His toes still pointed inward and down, however not as much as before. We continued to wait to fix his feet until he had recovered fully from his spine surgery and bladder and pelvic surgery. The process to fix his clubbed feet would consist of a series of castings to slowly bend out his feet. After months of casts, he would then probably need a surgery to clip his heal cord and finally he would then have boots made that he would wear for several years to come.
Last week we went to see Isaac's orthopedic doctor to proceed with his feet repair. When he examined his feet he was surprised to see that they are no longer clubbed. They do point downward but they didn't seem to be clubbed! From what I understand, his repair will begin with a small surgery to clip/release his heal cord as it is very tight making the feet point down. Before he leaves surgery they will put casts on his feet so that his feet will stay in the corrected position. He will have these casts on for three weeks while they make AFO's for him. AFO's are ankle-foot-orthotics. They are little braces molded specifically for his foot so that his foot will have support to stay in the correct position. He will most likely wear these for a long time. The AFO's will help his feet from going back to how they were. Since they are not clubbed we have avoided weekly cast changes to turn the feet outward which would have consisted of 6 to 12 weeks of casting.
What does it mean to have his feet fixed since he can not walk or stand? It may give him the chance to stand in the support of a stander someday so that he can be upright at times. It also means that he will be able to finally wear shoes that will actually fit and stay on his feet (sometimes we try to cram his little feet in shoes, but usually they just fall off). Being a shoe lover, this brings me great excitement!
No comments:
Post a Comment