Club Foot Update, Phase 3 pt1&2 Braces!

Hey guys, I just wanted to back up and fill everyone in that only reads my blogs and doesn't have instagram! So Conner has been in his boots and bar brace for over 3 months now but this is how it all went after Conner was finally finished in his last set of casts:

We have entered phase 3 in Conner's club feet journey and are LOVING the new knee mobility! He has had a little rough adjustment to the brace but we are getting there. His legs are super sore right now and will swell for the next 2 days as they transition out of casts and are bound in the brace. In this phase he will wear the boots and bar brace 23 hours a day until he starts pulling up on things and then he will wear it only at night until he's 6 years old. If pulling up is the only criteria to getting him to only wear the brace at night, you'd better believe we will try to blow through these next milestones to get to that as soon as possible. His doctor said club foot babies still reach their physical milestones on time or early so here we go, time to start working. 💪🏻 Also the doctor said this week enters "H-E-double hockey stick" week, the worst week during the whole thing and it has shown to be difficult for sweet little Conner. With this phase we have to be conscious about sore spots, blisters, and actually staying on top of him wearing the braces because if he misses more than a day or two, guess what, his feet will go back to the way they were born quickly (even with the corrected Achilles) and we have to start over with the casting and correcting😵‍💫🤯. Also if he gets a bad enough sore or blister, he has to go back into casts for a month for it to heal🤪. The doctor said yesterday a bad enough blister can occur even in as little as 45 minutes, so that's a little stressful. They start the angles off at 60 degrees and move to 70 degrees next week. But here's to new challenges, and moving forward in the process. Conner is so strong and such an encouragement to us, we hate he has to go through all of this. 

We are excited for the 1 hour a day he gets to take his brace off and during that time he can get a bath, relax, and we can massage and stretch his little legs and feet! 1 hour of freedom 🥳 #phase3part1 

All of the preparations for his braces!

We really really struggled with the braces for the first 5 1/2 days but pulled through.

 

The process of getting new molds for his braces!

Conner has come such a long way, I am so proud of him!!

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn

December 21st 2022