A question about surgery from a child

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone, Ruth Warren here,

A few weeks ago during a car ride to get her new AFOs,

my 10-yr-old daughter Katey and I had a discussion about surgery.

She knows it might be in the future for her, and she had some GREAT

questions, things I had not thought of. Her orthopedic doctor has

talked about tendon transfers, heel cord lengthening and some sort of

bone work to lower the arches in her feet. If and when it does

happen, this doctor recommends all three procedures on both legs/feet

at the same time. (One surgery and recovery time vs. multiple

surgeries and recoveries...)

Anyway, here is one of her questions. I honestly hadn't thought

about this myself and wondered if anyone had an answer. Regarding the

tendon transfer (transferring strong tendons in the feet to the weak

side and weak to the strong to balance the foot better), she wants to

know if the strong tendon would get weak after a period of time once

it was over on the weaker part of the leg. I did not have an answer

for her, but I was amazed at her ability to think through the issue!

One other thing, she doesn't like the idea of having the arch lowered

because she really likes the current shape of her foot, high arch and

all!

Does anyone have an answer about the tendon transfer? It will be a

while before we need to see the orthopedist again to ask him myself.

Ruth Warren

[Guest guest]

Ruth,

You have a brilliant child. Sorry to say I have read many reports where

that happened. The good tendon stretches due to the muscular atrophy.

Though I have never had foot surgery, I have worked in OR with it being

done, and attended CMT conferences where it was a topic. There seems to be

a lot of questions about much of the surgery that has been done. I would

suggest you research this on the net as well as doing a lot of checking

elsewhere. Incidentally, there is a podiatric surgeon that is on the board

of CMTA and has CMT. He is a very nice young man and would probably be glad

to review her records and X-rays if it comes to that.

----- Original Message -----

From: warrenre@...

Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 09:07 AM

Subject: [] A question about surgery from a child

Hello everyone, Ruth Warren here,

A few weeks ago during a car ride to get her new AFOs,

my 10-yr-old daughter Katey and I had a discussion about surgery.

She knows it might be in the future for her, and she had some GREAT

questions, things I had not thought of. Her orthopedic doctor has

talked about tendon transfers, heel cord lengthening and some sort of

bone work to lower the arches in her feet. If and when it does

happen, this doctor recommends all three procedures on both legs/feet

at the same time. (One surgery and recovery time vs. multiple

surgeries and recoveries...)

Anyway, here is one of her questions. I honestly hadn't thought

about this myself and wondered if anyone had an answer. Regarding the

tendon transfer (transferring strong tendons in the feet to the weak

side and weak to the strong to balance the foot better), she wants to

know if the strong tendon would get weak after a period of time once

it was over on the weaker part of the leg. I did not have an answer

for her, but I was amazed at her ability to think through the issue!

One other thing, she doesn't like the idea of having the arch lowered

because she really likes the current shape of her foot, high arch and

all!

Does anyone have an answer about the tendon transfer? It will be a

while before we need to see the orthopedist again to ask him myself.

Ruth Warren

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/8/2001 6:08:57 AM Pacific Standard Time,

warrenre@... writes:

> ), she wants to

> know if the strong tendon would get weak after a period of time once

> it was over on the weaker part of the leg. I did not have an answer

>

Ruth they split the healthy tendon and stretch it a few places. Yes over time

the healthy tendon gets weak. I had it done at 7. Again on one foot at 19.

The other foot is due to have it done again now at 33. I had my arches

lowered and heal cord lengthening all at the same time. I was getting stress

fractures my arches were so high. They did both legs at once. If is

happy with the way her feet are don't fix them. Just my 2 cents.