Jake's cast removal adventure

June 17, 2004

Hi everyone,

Jake had his cast removed last week Wednesday. The appointment was

quite the adventure!! Jake of course was really scared by the noise of

the saw. Seth had to hold him on his lap and I had to hold his legs

down. Once the cast came off I was surprised to see that he has three

incisions--two on the top of his foot and one behind his heel. They are

all pretty small, 1-2 inches long. Jake of course freaked again when Dr

Dietz came to take the stitch out. Dr Dietz said all looks good though,

Jake is able to flex his foot upwards like he's supposed to, so that's

good news.

This last week has been interesting. Jake hasn't been walking on his

foot much; the leg and foot are still weak. Around the house he still

mostly crawls but he's standing more and more every day. At the

playground he does more walking, since he doesn't like the feel of

woodchips on his knees LOL! And Monday the kids went to the pool with

day care and he did GREAT. He walked around a lot in the water, which

makes me think he just doesn't want to weight-bear on his weak leg.

We're hoping to make it to the pool a lot this summer as it seems to

work well for Jake.

Maybe some of you parents whose kids had ATTT surgery could help me out

with this one--Jake's ankle is VERY stiff. When he stands, now, he

usually stands on tip-toes. He had another tenotomy done during the

surgery, but I would have thought that would make him more flexible??

In any case I called Dr Dietz's office and talked with the nurse

practitioner on Monday morning. She said she wasn't sure if that was

normal or not, since it hadn't even been a week since the cast came off.

She suggested doing heelcord stretches. Jake HATES it--he really

looks like he's in pain, not like he's just being stubborn, kwim? He

starts crying and all everytime we try to stretch his heel. Anyways the

nurse practitioner was going to check with Dr Dietz and then call me

back today to see how Jake is doing, but I was wondering too if any of

you parents had any ideas.

Thank you so much for all the support during our surgery

experience--it's been much appreciated.

Kassia

mommy to 3/22/01 (Lt clubfoot, ATTT surgery 4/27/04)

and 11/22/02

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