We had been through a total of 9 weeks worth of weekly re-casting and Junior was in his final cast. This cast had been placed after his surgical procedure where his achilles tendon was severed and would grow back together, he had to wear this cast for the past 3 weeks. I was ready for the next part of this journey to begin so that our son would no longer be in casts. Those casts got us many strange looks and stares. I remember being asked countless times 'What happened to him?' I have to admit, after being asked so many times, I pondered giving a smart remark. I resisted the smart remarks and each time I would try to explain what clubfoot was and that this was the treatment used to correct his feet.
The days of his casts were about to come to an end, we loaded up and headed to the doctor to have the final cast taken off and to pick up his Dobbs bar. We had no idea what to expect. How was our son going to react to the bar? Would he fight wearing it? Would he be uncomfortable? The doctor came in and removed his casts, he was quite pleased with how well everything seemed to have healed. We got his boots and Dobbs bar, the nurse began to show us how to put them on correctly. 'Sit Junior on your lap facing away from you and use the pressure of his foot hanging down to make sure his foot is completely back in the shoe. If you do not tighten the straps enough, he may get blisters or sores. Also, make sure that the bar is shoulder width.' Trying to strap these boots on a 3 1/2 month old was not easy at times but luckily he never fought it. We were instructed to leave the boots and bar on for a total of 23 hours a day for the next 3 months. That hour without the bar would give our son a break and allow us to bathe him.
Our son weighed just over 10 pounds and the bar was 1 pound. Junior seemed pretty fussy throughout the day. It was not in his character to be overly fussy and even though he was trying to cope with something new, we were sure something just wasn't right. The more we looked at the bar, we realized it was wider than his shoulders. The next day, we headed back to the doctor to have the bar checked out again. We were told that it's better to be too wide as opposed to not wide enough and that the bar one size smaller would work but it would have to be fully extended. This would mean that when Junior grew, he would need a new bar. I insisted we try the smaller bar just to see if he would cope a little better. Junior slept all the way home so we were unable to tell if he would cope better but when we got home and watched him play, he was moving around a bit more, we knew we had done the right thing.
It took a while to get used to putting the boots on; I began to wonder 'how will we ever put these on every night and at each nap, especially if we have another child.. it takes so long! ' As the days went by, taking the shoes off and on became significantly easier and quicker to accomplish. We had it down to a science. As I would put his boots on, we would sing songs or I would just talk to him about our day. He seemed to enjoy these moments. We were very fortunate that he did not fight putting them on. The weeks went by and, for Junior, this became routine. He even seemed to act better when he had them on. He learned quickly, though. I can remember many times having him on my lap after the boots were on, I would snap the bar in place, he would pick up his feet then quickly slam the bar right on my shin. 'Ouch!' I would respond... He would turn, look at me and just giggle! After a few times of that, I was ready and could catch his feet before he could get me.
When the 3 months of 23 hour wear was over, we headed back to the doctor. The doctor was very pleased that his feet had been responding so well and told us that one main reason this treatment had gone so well thus far was because we stuck with it and continued putting the boots and bar on 23 hours each day as instructed. The doctor transitioned Junior to night and nap time wear and we were to follow up with the doctor in 4 months.
The hardest part about the boots and bar wear is the discipline it takes to make sure they are put on at each and every nap time and night time, never skipping. When I went back to work, I had to make sure that each caretaker knew how to put them on correctly and never skipped putting them on him.
During this transition, we began to see Junior play with his feet more and begin to crawl. It was such an amazing thing to watch and even though it was hard to stick with the treatment, we were so glad to see our little man develop and to see his feet begin to look more 'normal.'
What were some of the problems you faced with continuing or sticking with clubfoot treatment? How did your child cope with the treatment? Did you use the Dobbs bar?
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