On September 29th I went to bed in tears. I could not imagine taking my baby to get his first set of casts. He loved pulling his little legs up towards his body the first week of his life. We were going to take that away from him for the next several months. The thought was breaking my heart.
We got up Tuesday, took some final pictures of his precious little feet, and several people took their turn praying over him. Around lunch time Craig and I packed Samuel up and headed out to our appointment. So many of our friends and family members near and far were praying for Sammy and for us as we started our clubfoot journey as a family.
Once we arrived and got Samuel checked in everything went really smoothly. All of the staff was kind, very thorough in any explanations they gave us and they let us take pictures!
First we answered some questions about Samuel's birth process, weight, height, etc.
Next we meet with the physical therapist. Tony did all of the initial measurements and explained how the appointment would go. He was so helpful and positive and made us feel very comfortable. I won't go into all of the details (mostly because I don't know all the technical terms) but he gave Sammy a starting score based on his feet prior to any treatment. The scale is 0 - 20 with 0 being full flexibility and 20 being no flexibility. Most cases start in the range of 10 - 15. Sammy was a 13 in each foot so right in the middle of what they consider normal range. Once the measurements were completed Tony spent some time stretching and manipulating the foot.
Finally Dr. Miller came into the room. She did a full examination of Samuel and asked us some more questions about his birth. Then it was time to put on the casts. They like the baby to take a bottle or breastfeed during casting because the more relaxed they are the better the foot moves into the proper position. Samuel breastfed while they applied the casts. They put on the left cast followed by the right. Sammy did great through the process. At one point there were 9 people in the room (Dr. Miller, two observing doctors, nurse, cast tech, physical therapist, Craig, Sammy and me).
While I don't want an observing doctor working on Samuel during this process, I am more than happy to have them in the room learning. It really put us at ease when Dr. Miller started to refer to Popi. Anyone that can refer to Dr. Ponseti as Popi is allowed to work on my child!
In the end we got through the appointment fairly quickly and with only a few tears from Sammy and none from mom or dad. We were very comfortable with the process and team. We got home and kept waiting for the crying and discomfort to kick in. Thankfully it never came. Samuel slept like a champ and didn't seem bothered by the casts.
We made it through week one!
