The First Casting

I'm actually writing this blog entry a day before casting #2.  Having a 1-year old and a 1-week old in the house is tiring to say the least!

Driving to casting #1 - 3/9/11

Mary and I are driving to Palo Alto, CA to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.  I'm imagining all sorts of procedures that will need to be done on Jonathan (x-rays, consultations, etc...).

I read some more forums online over the last few days.  Parents said that you baby won't be able to wear pants or footie pajamas.  No big deal.

We don't know quite what to expect and we're prepared for an ordeal today.

At the office

 

We arrive at Dr. Gamble's office on time.  The last time we were here it took several hours for just a consult.

To our surprise, we get in the office quickly.

Mary and Jonathan in the exam room

Dr. Gamble enters and we have a nice conversation about club feet in general again.  He mentions that it's great that the baby is here within a few days of birth and says that if you wait even two weeks to begin treatment, it becomes more difficult.

He examines Jonathan's feet and says "Oh yeah.  I can fix this.  This is a moderate case of club feet."

MODERATE!?!?  How can that be?  They look bent 90 degrees to me.  How can this be right?

Dr. Gamble says "It's not that bad, watch this..."

He then takes one of Jonathan's little feet and after a series of purposeful movements....BENDS IT STRAIGHT WITH HIS HANDS!

He says "That's it that's all there is to it.  No big deal."

Dr. Gamble goes on to explain our planned course of treatment:

• 6 weeks of weekly casting and physical foot manipulation.
• 6 weeks of wearing some brace 23hours a day
• Keeping Jonathan in a brace at night until he's three if we can.

I know that things don't always go as planned, but if that's all that is involved, we feel very blessed.

Time to cast

Dr. Gamble again manipulates Jonathan's feet straight.  His assistant comes in and wraps one leg with a cast (I guess it's plaster) in about two minutes.  It's dry and hard in 5 mins.  Jonathan doesn't seem to mind.

First leg about to be wrapped

First leg done, waiting a minute to dry

He fusses a little bit between castings, but a pacifier and bottle seem to calm him down.

Second leg starting

After just a few more minutes, the casting is done.  They set his legs in a semi-bent pose.

All done!

They tell us that we can't bathe him in a tub.  Before our next appointment they'll show us how to remove the casts and give him a bath in the morning.

Total office visit time: 1 hour from check-in to walking out!

Care over the next week

The first two days were AWFUL.  He seemed to be in considerable discomfort.  He was up every 30 minutes crying and he was just inconsolable.  A call to LPCH provided some advice.  We could give Jonathan .4ml of Tylenol and after two day or so his feet should stretch and become more comfortable again.  This seemed to work.  At the time of this posting, we're on his 7th day of casting...he seems to be much more comfortable now.

The casts haven't really been a big deal.  Mary even is able to fit pants over them so no one notices.  It's not that I feel the need to hide his condition, it's more that I don't want to answer the same question from a million strangers.  Still, we've gotten a few interesting looks from people...but only a few easily-fieldable questions.

We took him to his 1-week follow up Pediatrician appt today.  He is 8lb, 8oz.  ( up from 7lb 5oz last week) Of course, we have no idea what he actually weighs due to the casts.  I'm going to try and weigh them tomorrow after removal.

Cleanliness

It's hard keeping casts clean on a 1-week old baby.  They poop about a MILLION times a day!  There are a couple of brown splatters at the top of his casts, but I have no idea what we could have done to prevent that. So far it's also just sponge baths for the little guy.

One more night of sleep for Jonathan before they bend his feet and re-cast tomorrow.  For now, he's sleeping soundly...in footie PJ's. ;-)

12 hours to go until casting #2