Of course everyone there was delighted to see Riley, she pretty much owns that office. And most importantly, she feels comfortable there. It's so weird now that he's at Stanford because everythig is so protocol driven, he as a nurse who comes in and examines her, of course she had little to no dorsiflexion, which had me doubting my suspicions about not getting a cast. But then Dr H came in and watched her walk, examined her feet, asked her about pain. So the good news, no cast and really not necessary. He says her clubfoot is not causing the inward turning of her foot. If he were to take x-rays he'd see all of the structure of the foot is fully aligned and where it should be, that her cavus tendon is causing our issues. We had this issue with her left foot which used to be a size smaller than her right. He released the cavus and I remember him coming out of the OR and telling us that once he released that tendon, her whole foot relaxed and settled into looking normal. He of course continued to transfer her tendon on that foot because alignment was off and no matter how much we casted, it continued to drift off it's axis but her right foot is fully aligned. I took this as fantastic news because Ponseti seems to have worked on her right foot, she's now nearly 4 years out of the brace.
The bad news, she needs a cavus tendon release, sooner rather than later. Especially because I expressed concern because her feet don't seem to grow. She's a size Toddler 11 at 7! Little brother is a Toddler 12 at 4! He said the release should help with some of that. We're in basketball now and then we roll right into softball so her surgery will be right before or right after school lets out. This will allow her to play the sports she loves, finish up the school year, and then still have a summer.
Riley of course took it all in stride. She really is a trooper, she rarely has moments where she hates her clubfeet or gets upset at courses of treatment and she was was elated NOT to be getting a cast. I was pretty happy to not have to figure out how to keep it dry in this El Nino winter that we're having. So now we just wait for the scheduler to call and get the ball rolling on that front. Of course, sending her into surgery again is not ideal but I am optimistic that this will be a fix for us and help with some of the pain that she's been feeling. A few hours after her appointment we went to basketball practice where the assistant coach pulled me aside to tell me Riley was the only one who could make a basket on the team. In my head, I laughed, because if only she knew a few hours earlier she found out she needed foot surgery again, it would make it all that much more ironic. For now, we live life, riding bikes (when it's not raining), playing basketball, doing running club and we will cross surgery when we get there!
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| We now bring our own shorts (which everyone thought was genius) since she hates his paper shorts. When I told them this wasn't our first trip to the rodeo, they all laughed and said not by a long shot! I think her feet look pretty good here, she's still running on her toes a lot and when she walks you see the curve on her right foot due to the cavus tendon. |
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| Our traditional picture in front of his planter, Riley now won't let us leave without this picture! i love her for that, she plays my silly memory games! |
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| Hours after the orthopedic surgeon, taking a jump shot at basketball practice. My little Sporty Spice! |
