Annika's Appointment

[Guest guest]

Annika had her appointment to have her casts removed today. I'll

skip the gorey details about getting to the appointment and Xrays

because in the end, I look REALLY bad.

Annika cried today when it was time for the casts to come off. Not

sure why today and not the other days. As soon as Harold the cast

tech was done using the loud saw, Annika said tearfully " Thank you

doctor " .

After we got seated in the office, I started checking out her foot.

Her cuboid isn't nearly as pronounced as it was and I could really

tell a difference in the dorsiflexion of Both of her feet. The were

VERY supple and moved/flexed easily. This is a big change. Dr. C

agreed of course and then sent us off to get some Xrays. They

weren't really necessary, but we were curious if the bones in the

foot moved at all during these 6+ weeks. Turns out they didn't move

much. The calcaneous on her right foot tilted upwards an additional

5 degrees, but is still in the negative numbers. On her left foot,

the calcaneous looks to be in the neutral or ZERO degree position; an

improvement from the previous Xray. But, we didn't see much movement

of the cuboid in relation to the 5th metatarsal. A little, but not

much on the xray.

After that, Dr. C fitted Annika with Arch Supports for her shoes.

The goal of this is to see if it will at least prevent the cuboid

from moving further out of alignment or see if it can help lift it a

little.

It seems so strange to see such visible improvement outwardly on how

her foot moves and feels-- (I swear the whole thing feels more

supple, but then she's been in hard/scratchy casts for 6 weeks)-- and

yet see such small movement in the bones. I guess that goes to show

Dr. Ponseti's mantra " Don't go by the Xray, go by the function of the

foot. "

Annika is still getting used to walking again without the casts, so

she's a little unsteady. I'll try to do some video of her in the

next few days to have for comparison. The plan now is for us to have

her in some type of shoe most of the day, with the arch support in

it. As well as going back to 12 hrs/ day in the shoe/bar and twice

daily stretching--we hope. I specifically had Dr. C talk to her

about the shoe/bar because I know she's not going to like it much.

As I speak, she is prolonging bed time as well as not interested in

putting on the shoe/bar; can hardly

blame her. But, we're explaining to her that the doctor said she

needs to wear it so her feet won't get crooked again. I keep

repeating " The DOCTOR said you need to wear them " .

Now, we go back in 6 weeks for a check. My husband and I didn't want

to wait too long, just in case her achilles starts to lose some of

the correction. So, now it's just wait and see if the correction

lasts. EVERYONE keep your fingers crossed!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

Thanks again for all of the thoughts out there for Annika and the

kind words for me. It's really appreciated.

Lori and Annika