February 03, 2005

Club feet, Week 5

This morning was Nathan’s fifth appointment with Dr. Lincoln. Melissa (who flew home this afternoon) came along because she wanted to see what happened at the doctor. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t really get to see what the appointments have typically been like.

Fortunately, that’s because Nathan wasn’t bothered at all by the adjustment. I’ve never seen him like this – he smiled, waved his arms around, and made cooing noises. He looked around happily while the nurse took the casts off, and then cheerfully let the doctor and nurse put the new casts back on.

The doctor said that this happens a lot the week after the tenotomy. The theory is that when the babies get so mad at the adjustment, it’s the tightness of the Achilles tendon that makes the stretch so painful. So after the tendon is “lengthened” (i.e., cut), the stretch doesn’t hurt nearly as much.

The doctor also gave us the prescription for Nathan’s braces, and said that we should bring them in next week. On that appointment, he’ll set the braces and change the casts one last time. A week later, we’ll take the casts off ourselves and put him into the braces, then take Nathan back in to have them checked one week after that.

Just two more weeks of casts :)

Posted by Mike at February 3, 2005 11:11 PM