Just got back from our first appointment

[Guest guest]

It took us 4.5 hours to get to Shriner's Hospital in Massachusetts.

Then my son was examined by Dr. Mack's assistant who just couldn't

believe I spoke with Dr. Ponseti on the phone. He kept asking me

questions about what Dr. Ponseti said and then told me they will be

seeing Dr. Ponseti in Baltimore, I guess at some conference or

something coming up? Anyway, after waiting about an hour Dr. Mack

came in and rated his feet as severe. He estimates 8 casts because of

his age, but that's just an estimate. The assistant told me they've

never had to operate on clubfeet, other than the tenotomy. The casts

they put on look just like the pictures on Dr. Ponseti's website and

they both know Dr. Ponsti and respect him a lot. So I'm feeling

pretty good about them following Ponseti's method.

The only thing that made me a little nervous was they said they are

using a different kind of brace rather than the DBB, although he said

if I wanted to use the bar that was fine with him. He talked about

overcorrecting the feet and told me about the difference between

Ponseti casting and other casting methods. My son hated having the

casts put on, but I could tell they weren't hurting him and he

doesn't seem to be hurting now.

I can tell it's going to be very difficult for him to crawl with

these casts on and I share other parents', who started this late,

frustration that we could've been long past casts by now if we'd

known about this sooner. But I'm feeling very positive about the

outcome and if there seems to be any problem along the way I am

heading straight to Iowa and Dr. Ponseti himself.

Thanks to everyone who's answered my questions and encouraged me to

go with a Ponseti doctor. It's made all the difference. From now on

we're going to get an early morning appointment and I'll go down the

day before and stay overnight, 9 hours in the car once a week is just

too much for both of us.

and born 11/10/03 with bilateral clubfeet