We found out at 16 weeks of pregnancy that Timothy had a clubbed foot: possibly two. We thought at the time, that he was just like his daddy, who had to have two casts for a while as an infant. Turns out, it is very different: Timothy's is related to his spina bifida. He will always have one foot broader than the other, and the muscles on his leg won't develop as well. Plus he needs to have tenotomies: a process where they slice the Achilles tendon to stretch it out long enough to flatten his foot out. He will also need to wear braces for 4 years.
Here is Timothy's foot at birth: he only had one clubbed foot, but the other was bent tightly due to him being breach.
This is Timothy's foot right before they put on his first cast. We had mixed feelings about getting that cute foot fixed: Timothy has always been perfect to us: but we certainly wanted to give him the best chance for mobility that we could.
This was after his first cast! I couldn't believe how quickly his foot straightened out!
After the second cast: his toe was pointed like a ballet dancer due to the tight Achilles tendon.
On cast 3 or 4, we ran into an issue: Timothy's foot slipped back in his cast! Luckily we were up in Salt Lake at the time, so we just ran him over to Shriner's and got his cast cut off. We had caught it early enough that he just had some rub burns and pressure marks but no sores. But his foot swelled up so much that he couldn't get recasted til the swelling went down. He had his other foot casted at the same time to stretch that out more, but they cut that cast off as well so we could bathe him and not worry about casts still he was ready to start again. We had to flex his feet frequently to keep them from losing progress.
I love that they had these cute baby headphones to protect his hearing! He has always been so chill when they are cutting off his casts!
For his 5th cast, they hyper-extended his foot to give it the flexibility that a normal foot does. He hated this week. We had to keep him on Tylenol because he was so uncomfortable.
The 6th cast was his tenotomy: which was easier than I expected. It took about 1 minute, and when I came back in he was crying, but he was hungy: I fed him and he calmed right down. He actually seemed much more comfortable: certainly more than the previous week. He did bleed through his cast a little, but they told us to expect that.
The cast was supposed to stay on for 3 weeks for his tendon to heal back up. But at exactly 2 weeks, I checked his toes and they were so scrunched they looked folded on themselves and broken! I drove back up to Shriners and they cut the cast off. His incision was doing well, but his foot had slipped badly enough that he had no heel and he had a deep sore on his foot. They wanted to go straight to bracing, but his his was to flat to fit in the shoe. So they gave us a splint.
The next day the wound was very hot to the touch, so we put him on an antibiotic.
Timothy was so thrilled to be able to lift his legs: he spent the entire week in this position: totally extreme straddles. I guess having dislocated hips helps flexibility a bit.
They were about to put the casts back on after a week: yes, i said casts. They put one on each foot. They think this will be his last casts, and next Monday he should be able to get his braces. He will wear those for 3 months 24/7, and then during nights and naps for the next 4 years. He will need another tenotomy when he starts to walk.
