Monday, September 22, 2008

Club Feet Updates

Today was Om's 5th casting in a series. We go every Monday to Children's Hospital in Seattle to see Dr. Vincent Mosca, one of the top orthopedic physicians in the area. Folks come from far and wide to see this doctor...I spoke to one lady last week who was there with her infant son and had to catch a flight back home afterwards. Imagine doing that weekly! Sheesh what we do for our kids. We are so blessed that we live fairly close to the hospital.
Om keeps the cast on all week long, then Monday morning G removes the casts from Om's legs. Om doesn't like getting the casts taken off so is a bit fussy during the process. Grandma (my mom in law) gets all wet in the bathtub with him for his weekly bath (we wash him daily with a washcloth because the casts can't get wet or soiled). He also gets an oil massage from grandma. I dry Om and dress him after his bath.




In the above pic, Om's feet are clearly turned inward. This is before the casting series.



In this pic, Om was getting his first casts applied by Dr. Mosca. (He's content in sucking the bottle in this pic, which is not always the case!)




Above Om is getting his casts removed by his Dad. Again, he's quiet, but usually he hates when his casts come off (probably feels funny to the little guy!).



Here's Om before today's visit to the hospital. You can see the difference between this picture and the first one...his feet aren't as twisted anymore.



His feet are still odd looking, but MUCH more normal than 5 weeks ago! All the extra folds of skin are a good sign...it means the foot is changing to a normal shape and he will eventually grow into the extra skin.
Next week a procedure called a tentotomy will be performed on both of his feet. His achilles tendons will be snipped and then a new cast applied to last 3 more weeks. Fingers are crossed that Om suffers through it like the brave trooper he has been...and that all this work eventually leads to healthy normal chubby cute feet! Please keep us in your prayers / positive thoughts!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! That's quite noticable progress in a short amount of time! I hope all goes well with the tentotomy. I'll be looking for an update. :-)

For how long do they anticipate him needing the casts?

Anonymous said...

My son was born with both feet ture up. His is now 4yrs old. He wore casts for 18months. He wears braces now. His Dr. says that he will be wearing them intell he stop growing. He had a surgery at 10 months. With in the year he is going to have another surgery on his feet. He will be in casts for at lest 8 weeks after that. I am happy to have found sameone written about club feet and how it as has efftect there child. Thank u for ur post JDW Houston TX

Chikki said...

kathryn - This week he got his last cast in the initial series, then after the tenotomy he will be in another cast for 3 weeks. Hopefully, after that all he'll need are braces (and no further surgery hence requiring more casts)!

anon - I'm glad you liked the post, I hope your son is doing better now. How come he needed so much surgery? Were his feet very severely clubbed?

Sraikh said...

Such a cute baby.And the difference between the 2 pictures is very noticable.

Your remark about what all we do for kids.. I think that every day and then they grow up and hate us!

Chikki said...

sraikh - I figure it's karma for what we put our own parents through! :-) Also another reason to not have your life revolve around your kids (which is easier said than done).

Anonymous said...

Also another reason to not have your life revolve around your kids (which is easier said than done).

The first few months, that's kind of hard to avoid, LOL.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say - Dr. Mosca is AMAZING!!! I was treated for a clubbed foot along with other things at Seattle's Children's Hospital - and they are an amazing group! I'm 27 now - and am so thankful for the treatment!!!

Amber