A Good Report

The primary purpose of our trip back to PA was Grace's check-up with her foot specialist, for treatment of her clubfoot. I was a little apprehensive about the visit, wondering what he would see (or not see), praying that she would not need further casting or surgery. I'm her mother, I'm fiercely protective of my daughter -- I will probably always feel apprehensive about these visits. I'm happy to say that, so far, all is as well as can be expected. We are extremely fortunate to have one of the best, most influential doctors in the clubfoot-world, so our decision to continue seeing him, despite the two-hour trip, is an important one. One bit of good news is that her check-ups will now be annual, so we only have to make one trip a year.

Grace is a hoot. When the doctor walked in, my extroverted girl ran right up to him, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Hi Doctor!" And when he asked her to walk over to Mommy, she did -- but on her toes. She has never walked on her toes before, but leave it to Grace to do so at that moment. She knew she was being funny, but finally she gave in and walked around the room in a normal fashion. He then flexed her foot, at a maximum of 30-degrees, which is about right for a clubfoot (although it could be a little better, with more stretching of the tendon). He noticed two things, though, that we need to keep an eye one:

- Her foot, and especially her toes, do turn in rather dramatically, making her quite "pigeon-toed." The "treatment"of this is, of course, continued wear of the bar shoes at night, but now we must also put her daytime shoes on the wrong feet. Ugh. He said I should prepare myself for lots of stares, lots of questions, and lots of little old ladies saying, "Dearie, you put her shoes on wrong" like I'm some imbecile mother.

- He noticed that she might have a "drop foot," or a lazy foot, although she wasn't consistent with that every time she put her foot down. Often patients with a drop foot have nerve damage to that foot, and now they're finding that the damage occurred in utero. This is just something we have to keep an eye on.

Yet all in all, he was pleased with her progress, and even better -- no need for further casting or surgery! So we have about one more of those awful bar shoes until our visit again next year. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It feels good to have gotten through this. We're praying that the year ahead will be equally free of problems.