So as you know, Conner is out of his braces during the day and only has to wear the braces at night for 12 hours. We are ecstatic to say the least and Conner is so much happier. Also life is SO much easier, I had no idea how much it impacted. I am just so happy for him, he gets to be a typical 9 and 10 month old!
With that being said, we weren't supposed to be cleared for only night wear until April 12th.... We had to schedule an "urgent" appointment on March 14th (the day we ended up being cleared) because we were having some major concerns with Conner's feet, mainly his left one... or so we thought. So we went to an appointment in Atlanta and they said Conner's right foot was the major issue and had something called a vertical tailes and needed a tenotomy like his left foot and needed his bones shaved and reformed, held together by a metal pin. He said the metal pin sometimes comes out so he most likely will need another surgery to put it back in and then another to take it out after 6 weeks. That would require 6 weeks of hip to toe casts on both feet and of course non weight bearing. We were devastated. He said it needed to have been done at 6 months so the sooner the better and his left foot needed a tendon replacement surgery from a cadaver giving him a new tendon because his tenotomy surgery he had at 8 weeks failed. We left there devastated as you can imagine. We didn't know where to go from there considering we were told everything was beyond great just weeks before minus his left ankle not being able to move at all as you know.
So the next day was the "emergency" appointment with his normal doctor to get even more x-rays taken (he took all of them and was extremely thorough), and really addressed Conner's foot and our specialist said his right foot is beyond fine, it's actually over corrected which isn't a problem at all (which explains why it can turn almost 360 and the top of the foot can touch his shin when flexed, (it was found to be skewed at birth if you remember). But his left foot indeed had some issues that did need to be addressed. To start with the good news, his left ankle can move now slightly and really might get better with time without surgery on that when he is 8, that will be a waiting game. And the bad news, basically his tenotomy surgery at 8 weeks old was unsuccessful on his left foot. His tendon is still too short and tight (which is what causes clubfoot in the first place). So we will see how much stretch and movement we can get from that foot in the next 3 years from walking and brace wearing at night and at 4 he most likely will need the tenotomy again. It will be 6 weeks of hip to toe casts on both legs and he will be in a wheelchair. Luckily with a summer birthday (thank God) he won't have to worry about it during preschool but won't get the typical summer of swimming or outdoors (due to sweat issues with casting again). So we are devastated because all we went through basically was supposed to prevent and fix this and it being smooth sailing from here.
All we have left to do is pray that between now and 4 it will have the movement he needs to run and play sports to avoid this surgery again. I cry for Conner, he doesn't deserve to go through this but he is strong. I am so grateful he doesn't need to redo the surgery now and he will be able to walk on time like everyone else because guess what, there is no keeping this boy still lol.
