We found out Ian would be born with bilateral club feet when I had my 20 week ultrasound. It was pretty overwhelming news because the doctors were quick to tell us that club foot can be associated with over 200 different syndromes. From what they could see at that ultrasound nothing else was wrong but we would have to have further ultrasounds to keep checking for other defects. For the next month I spent way too much time on Google searching for as much information as possible about club foot and the treatment. After a while I decided to just quit reading until the echocardiogram ultrasound. That was done at about 24 weeks and thankfully his heart looked perfectly normal. I only had to have one more growth scan after that and they decided that it was a pretty good chance that his club foot was isolated and not associated with anything else. From that point on all we could do was wait for him to be born. We unexpectedly became very familiar with Seattle Children's hospital orthopedics when Aidan broke his elbow. We were able to talk to his doctor who also treats club foot about where we would be starting when Ian was born. Children's uses the Ponseti method for treatment of club foot and has doctors that have trained with Dr. Ponseti so that was great news.
Ian was born on September 17th and was totally healthy. His feet were his only issue. Luckily Madigan and Tricare had no problem with referring him immediately to Children's. He had his first visit with Dr. Mosca at 8 days old and was casted for the first time. At the time Dr. Mosca thought that Ian would need 8 weeks of casting before they would see if he would need a tenotomy or not.
He did great with his casts and hardly fussed when they put them on. Everything I had read said to be prepared for a fussy baby at least the first day but he really could care less about them. The first week went quickly, luckily another doctor who works with Dr. Mosca, Dr. Jinguji works out of the Federal Way clinic twice a week. It was great to not have to drive to Seattle once a week. Dr. J was great for his weekly castings he made us feel at ease and Ian hardly made a peep during any of his appointments. We removed his casts ourselves before his appointments and even after a week it was amazing to see how his feet were changing position.
I wish I had taken more pictures through the process. You can kind of see in this picture how his feet were turned out instead of down like the first casts. This was I think the 5th week of casting.
We went back to Dr. Mosca after 5 weeks of casts and he decided Ian was ready for his tenotomy. This was great news since we expected 8 weeks of casts. He went into his 6th set of casts for the week and we got ready for the surgery. They started by putting numbing cream on his heels and let that sit about 30 minutes. The procedure went very well, Dr. Mosca is definitely good at what he does. He was very quick and Ian did cry but mostly because another doctor had to hold his foot still while the incision was made. He was pretty much over it by the time they put his final casts on. He was fussy the first evening but after that it was just like any other casting. We got a little bit of a break from doctor appointments since the casts that go on after surgery have to be on for 3 weeks.
The day before Thanksgiving Ian was finally done with casts. We went to Children's so he could be fitted for his shoes and bar. He was pretty fussy about his feet being touched but after being in casts so long I'm sure he was a little extra sensitive. We had a rough night the first night in the shoes but after that he got used to them.
It is amazing to see what his feet look like now compared to when he was born. For now he wears his braces full time but as time goes on the wear time will reduce down to night time and nap time.
Enjoying a little time out of the braces. This is what his feet look like today, amazing! He gets to take his shoes off 3 times a day to do stretches and he gets very excited that he can freely move. Much different from the casts.
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