This girl is AWESOME and I love her fiercely!
She just recently had an appointment in Iowa City for her bilateral clubfeet and her doctor (who is the best in the world for club feet) said she needs to have surgery. The surgery is a Tibial Tendon Transfer (TTT) and lengthening of the achilles tendon.
For 7 YEARS this is what we have been trying to avoid. The castings she went thru when she was 6 months old and the bracing ever since were to try and prevent her from having surgery.
Here are her current feet. I have noticed that they were turning inward, mostly the left, even while still in the braces at night. I felt like as soon as we stop the bracing her feet would fall inward reequiring surgery and the doctor confirmed my fear and agreed with me.
Her doctor and I discussed a lot. He recommended spring or fall for the surgery and as of right now we are looking at doing this over spring break, but nothing is scheduled except her next appointment in January. Heres the low down...
She will need to spend the night in the hospital post operatively for pain control. She will casted in bilaterally with her foot flexed upward for the stretch of the achillies tendon and her knee slightly bent with the casts going thigh high (see below picture as 6 months of castings). She will NOT be able to bear weight on her feet for 6 weeks post-op. So wheelchair bound...
I immediatley came home and watched a video of the surgery (as the surgical nurse in me) and just cannot believe I have to put my child thru this. My heart breaks thinking about this for her.
Concerns:
My first concern has been with her school. Her class room is on the second floor of the school and has no elevator accesss. She will need help going to the bathroom as well. I am hoping that we can come up with solutions that doesn't leave Ella feeling left out or behind. This is going to be hard enough being wheel chair bound for 6 weeks and I want her day to be as normal as possible. She will not be able to ride the bus home so I will also need to pick her up everyday. I will need to figure out logistics with my work to make that happen.
Our house is not wheelchair accessible and her bedroom is on the second floor. I know that she is a peanut but lifting her and carrying her as much as I am anticipating seems hard. Our bathrooms are not really wheelchair accessible on the main floor let alone our entry ways.
And, Joey has a bad back. I will be concerned with him lifting her, as I don't want him to hurt himself doing this. So I feel most lifting with done by me. With casts she will be about 50lbs
There are so many other concerns going thru my head but these are the biggest ones, by far.
Her doctor did say she may need casts prior to surgery if her feet fall too far inward. They need to be stretched into the correct position before surgery can be done. We, obviously, don't know how fast or far her feet will fall inward prior to surgery so she may need zero casts or 1, 2, or 3 prior to surgery. So 6 weeks is the minimal time, probably more, she will be in casts.
Here is where we started with her feet (above). We've come along way, but 7 years and we end up with needing surgery. Although I am full of concerns and worries for Ella there are many things be positive about. Out of all the places we could be, we are 1.5 hours away from the worlds best treatment for clubfoot. The national standards were devoloped from the Univeristy of Iowa. I have no doubt in her doctors opinions and skill. We could not ask to be in better place for her treatment and surgery.
I know that sooner is better than later and I also know that kids are resilliant. She will get thru this and I assume she will be scooting and crawling so much by the end it will suprising! And I also know she NEEDS this surgery to be able to walk.
Although Ella was in her apointment and heard her doctor and I talking, I am trying to not talk about this in front of Ella. She knows she needs surgery and she has told me she is scared about that. She does not realize what her recovery is really going to include. I will answer any questions she has honestly, but with as much sugar as I can put on it. This is pretty far away and I don't want her to think about it so the less I talk about it in front of her the better. So please do not talk to me or Joey about this in front of the kids. That is why I am writing this blog and also as a way to not repeat myself 1000x's.
